What a year 2023 has been for Leigh Network! A round up from Faye;
In January Mandy continued to walk on during the winter weather, towards completing her 1000 Mile Walk in memory of our Sammy.
During February, Glasgow Rare Aware which is medical students from Glasgow University, asked us to share what having Leigh Syndrome is like and raise awareness in general about mitochondrial diseases and Leigh Network, it was great to be involved.
We held awareness stalls in Tesco in Heswall and also Asda in Liscard and Arrowe Park – a fantastic way to raise awareness, we had lots of lovely chats with people and we were able to raise some much needed funds also. We also attended a fab day with The Brain Charity in Liverpool, again meeting lots of great people and we were able to learn so much.
We have continued to also raise awareness about many different issues and of course Mitochondrial Diseases across our social media platforms.
We have held our lovely zoom catch ups throughout the year and will continue with these next year.
In July we held our thirteenth Family Day at the Newcastle Life Science Centre, we were so happy to bring everyone together and to enjoy fantastic informative talks from researchers from The Wellcome Trust in Newcastle Dr Lyndsay Butterworth and Dr Albert Lim. It really was a fab day!
This year we have also been sending our new Leigh Network snuggly blankets to our families if they have been in hospital. A way of letting them know that we were thinking of them and hopefully helping them feel better at a difficult time.
August marked the epic end to Mandys 1000 Mile Walk, a celebration was held in Birkenhead Park with friends and family walking the last part of the walk with Mandy – who raised an amazing £1815.00 for Leigh Network.
September was Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Week – we were once again asked to join the Mito Research team with their X (Formally Twitter) takeover. We worked alongside charities and organisations from across the globe.
September also marked the return of our wonderful Mito on the Mic event! This was an evening full of poetry, music, laughter, great food and good vibes! We were able to raise awareness and a massive £708! Thank you to everyone who volunteered and also our amazing audience members.
In October we were so excited to be asked to attend a Patient Day at Newcastle, this was a great event that brought together so many patients affected by mito, researchers and mito organisations, we truly are stronger together. It was lovely to see everyone and to feel the strength of the mito community.
During December we were so pleased to have a super team of Santas running in the fantastic Liverpool Santa Dash to raise money for Leigh Network. The team raised a brilliant £520!
This year we have lost some of our amazing Mito warriors and we send all our love to their families and friends. We will keep working with the global Mito community to provide support to our families, to raise awareness and to fund research so that one day a cure can be found.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year. We look forward to seeing you in 2024! 💚