Chiswick Daredevil Takes On the 80mph Cresta Run |
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Charity chief’s novel fundraising stunt in aid of Diabetes UK
Entrepreneurial Chiswick resident John Grummitt is taking on a rather novel challenge to raise money for the Diabetes UK charity. He told ChiswickW4.com “Early morning on 31st January I plan to go head first down the St Moritz Toboggan Run. It’s 3/4 of a mile, at an average speed of up to 53 mph, finishing at around 80 mph.” “In return for such foolishness, I am raising funds for research into diabetes. 1.5m people in the UK have the disease. A further 750,000 have it but don't know it and 50% of them will have complications when they are finally diagnosed. Of these complications, diabetes is the biggest cause of blindness; 80% of all foot amputations are diabetes related. The costs of managing and treating the disease represent 10% of the total UK hospital expenditure. I could go on...” John is the Vice Chairman of the charity Diabetes UK so knows first hand what they do and how the money raised is spent. Diabetes UK is a leading funder of research in the UK; they recently enabled the first successful pancreas transplants. It funds support services such as educational holidays for children with the disease and a helpline which takes over 200 calls a day and a website that receives over 4,000 hits a day. Diabetes UK also lobbies Westminster as well as their local colleagues to focus attention on high quality care being delivered to all. In December last year Diabetes UK were part of the team that successfully lobbied for and obtained a UN resolution to assign a Worldwide UN Diabetes Day which will take place on November 14th every year. January 19, 2007 |