Fundraising Triathlon for Lyme disease Research

When the Wintour family found out that one of their sons, Adam, had Lyme disease, they decided to do something constructive about it.

So they organised the Bowood House Triathlon. The tireless organiser, Laura, press-ganged most members of the connected Broadhurst, Wintour and Lambton families into participating – somewhat against their will, we have been told by a few of the participants!

The family raised over £10,000 for the charity to help fund desperately needed research into Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment.

Adam said afterwards:

“I was so touched by the monumental efforts of my family in running a Triathlon to raise money for and awareness of Lyme disease, and by the overwhelming generosity of all their friends. It has been a great encouragement for me in my own struggle and I’m sure the money raised will go a long way towards improving the situation for other Lyme disease sufferers.”

The families chose to support Caudwell LymeCo Charity because the LymeCo Research Fund guarantees all donations will be used specifically for scientific research. To find out more about our research aims, read our Why Donate? page.

Whilst the rest of the family was raising money for scientific research into Lyme disease, Adam Wintour used the energy he had – despite being very ill – to raise awareness of Lyme disease. As the sponsor of this charity John Caudwell has also done, Adam used the press to educate the public on Lyme disease.

Adam’s article for The Telegraph newspaper, published in October 2017, was entitled The symptoms of Lyme disease are a lot like flu – which is perhaps why NHS treatment is so inadequate.

“It took four years for me to be diagnosed – doctors and patients alike need to know much more about this illness to prevent more lives being ruined,” he explained in the article.

“Lyme disease is unquestionably complicated. It’s complicated science, complicated medical politics and the subject of a huge feud within the medical community. On the one hand, there is a group of doctors who argue that it is rare, easy to treat with a few weeks of antibiotics, and cannot exist in a chronic form. On the other is a group who argue that it is increasingly prevalent, much more difficult to treat than suggested and all too often leads to a chronic illness than can be extremely difficult (not to mention expensive) to recover from.

“Nevertheless, I can’t help feeling that I have had five years of my life wasted by a disease that, if caught early enough, is relatively simple to treat. Doctors and patients alike need to be much more aware and open to the possibility of Lyme disease as a diagnosis. It is often said that the over-use of antibiotics is dangerous for society and that fear appears to be one of the driving forces behind not treating more patients with potential Lyme disease. I agree, over-use is dangerous, but giving antibiotics to patients with potential Lyme disease is not “over-use”; it is appropriate use, and the benefit of potentially averting this dreadful disease must outweigh any potential risks.”

Can you organise a Fundraising event? As big or small as you like, all you need is a place to do sports, and some participants!

Contact us for help with fundraising collection and publicity side of it…

or donate now.

Posted in Blog posts, Charity news, Fundraisers.

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