News Flash for all Great Golfers, Supporters & Friends of the Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease

12th May 2012

Dear Friends,

Once again I am assisting my step son Mark Bedford in organizing this most noble of events

It gives me great pleasure to announce that this year’s Golf Tournament will be held on Friday the 24th of August. I hope that you will be able to join us and thank you for having supported this great cause in the past.

As you know the Queen and the Duke of Edinburg opened the SITraN (Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience) building in November 2010. Now over 100 scientists and researchers work in SITraN. The Patrons need to raise a further half a million pounds in each of the next five years- This will enable Professor Pam Shaw and her expert team of Doctors & Scientists to slow down the horrors of these Neurological conditions and eventually find a cure.

This year we have, amongst others Professional Golfers, Duncan Muscroft, Billy Bremner Jnr entering teams from Italy & Germany,and John Cawley from Ireland also entering a team, making our event truly International.There will be additional  team prizes for leading International teams and Ladies teams who do not make the main prizes.

 We are also offering Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities as well as individual entries. Please contact me for details at stuartkeane@talktalk.net .

We would be grateful if you could help us with prizes for the raffle! Any help will be welcome.

I rely on you all to play this year, This Great Cause needs your help.

Thank you and very best wishes,

Stuart
Patron.

R.S.V.P.  stuartkeane@talktalk.net 

 

 

 

About the Talisker Boat Expedition

Don McIntyre and his crew followed in the footsteps of Capt. William Bligh when cast adrift from HMS Bounty in the Pacific on April 28 th , 1789. They boarded their 25ft 'Talisker Bounty Boat' in the same position exactly 221 years to the day of the Bounty Mutiny. They first set sail to Tofua to find extra food and water, before heading westwards across the top of Fiji and the Vanuatu Island groups, bound for the Queensland Coast, Australia to land, like Bligh, on Restoration Island. They then sailed north inside the Great Barrier Reef to Thursday Island, and then through the Torres Strait to Kupang and Timor.  

This was the first time that anyone had sailed the same course in the same way that Bligh did. Previous attempts in 1983 and 1990 both used almanacs and charts for navigation, torches, modern timepieces, and also made unscheduled stopovers, did not follow the same route or were escorted part of the way. McIntyre's crew had no charts, no almanacs, modern timepieces or navigation equipment, torches, or toilet paper. 

About the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN)

  SITraN, is a world-class research centre lead by Professor Pam Shaw who, with her team of nearly 100 international scientists is working towards solving the mysteries of MND - one of the world's most under researched diseases for which currently there is no cure and very low options of treatment. SITraN has been working tirelessly over the last few years to raise funds needed to build the Sheffield Institute Foundation (SIF) and finance it for the first five years. It will be the first of its kind in Europe and will continue to grow and develop in to a pioneering Institute attracting first class scientists from around the World.

There are 40,000 patients who suffer from MND in Europe, 6,000 in the UK alone.   The life expectancy of a patient is about three years and only ten per cent live over five years from diagnosis. A key feature of this condition is the speed of the progression of the symptoms.

Four years ago a team of dedicated Patrons set up the Sheffield Institute Foundation for MND (SIF): they have raised £16million with the help of the University of Sheffield. SITraN will more than double the current research capacity in Sheffield and will allow new and existing programmes of research to be developed and extended. It will bring laboratory studies into the clinic where new research will be applied to the patients after being cleared by the appropriate committee of safety of medicine (MHRA).

About MND 
Motor Neurone Disease is the British name given to the group of diseases, which are caused by the death of motor neurones. In the USA it is known as Lou Gehrig Syndrome or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis(ALS).   In France it is La maladie de Charcot and in Italy the disease is call Sclerosis Lateral Amyotrophic (SLA)

These are the nerve cells that link our brain to our muscles, sending electrical impulses to control muscle movements. It is a fatal condition with no cure and virtually no form of treatment. From diagnosis, sufferers live on average for only two years and only about 10% of sufferers live beyond five years.

MND attacks and destroys motor neurones, disrupting these vital links within the body; without the stimulus of electrical impulses, the muscles cease to function and waste away.

Eventually this muscular atrophy leads to a complete loss of mobility, speech and the ability to swallow; death typically comes from paralysis of the breathing muscles. MND is devastating, usually leaving the sufferer with full retention of their mental faculties but trapped in a living hell. This is compounded by the speed at which the disease takes hold, giving little opportunity for clinicians to help patients and their families adjust to the condition. For these reasons many doctors regard MND as the worst disease known to medicine.

We now have a chance to play an important role in changing this future. The creation of the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience has established an important Centre of Excellence dedicated to fighting MND. By supporting this auction in aid of SITraN, donors will not only be giving us much needed encouragement, but make a vital difference in helping to achieve a major leap forward in bringing an end to the devastation caused by MND.

About Talisker

Talisker Single Malt Whisky is the only single malt to be distilled on the shores of the Isle of Skye. One of the famed 'Classic Malts', Talisker has been produced on the edge of the sea since 1830. The distillery sits in the shadow of the moody Cuillin hills and waves from the ocean crash against the rocks in front of the distillery. The wonderful rugged surroundings of the distillery have come to define the strength and depth of the Talisker flavour - a powerful peat and sea-salt nose, smoky sweetness with malt-flavours and developing warmth with an intense, spicy finish.

Talisker comes in three main variants - 10yr, 18yr and 25yr. The flavour of Talisker has also been recognised as one of the best in the world - in 2007 Talisker 18 year old was voted by experts as the 'Best Single Malt Whisky in the World' at the World Whisky Awards.

About Diageo   -

Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks business with an outstanding collection of beverage alcohol brands across spirits, wines, and beer categories. These brands include Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Smirnoff, J&B, Baileys, Cuervo, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan, Crown Royal, Beaulieu Vineyard and Sterling Vineyards wines. Diageo is a global company, trading in more than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (DGE). For more information about Diageo, its people, brands, and performance, visit us at Diageo.com. Visit www.drinkaware.co.uk and our global resource www.DRINKiQ.com for information and guidance on responsible drinking. In Great Britain, Diageo is a member of The Portman Group and supports The Drinkaware Trust.

Celebrating life, every day, everywhere 

The TALISKER word and associated logos are trade marks. © 2010

 

 

 

Her Majesty The Queen inaugurated the Sheffield Institute for Motor Neurone Disease on Thursday 18 th November 2010

Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh officially unveiled a new state-of-the-art £12 million research institute at the University of Sheffield on the 18 November 2010 which is set to make Sheffield a world leader for research into Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

The Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), which is run by staff at the University, brings together scientists and medical specialists from around the globe who will be dedicated to finding the causes and cure for MND, as well as other neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a childhood form of Motor Neurone Disease.

The key aim of the centre will be to identify what leads to the degeneration of neurones at the root of MND. The research team will focus on experimental work in the laboratory, which will then be translated into effective therapies for patients in the clinic. Their work will draw on the extensive resources available in the new centre, including a clinical database of over 900 patients and the largest resource of human brain-bank material in the world.

The Institute has been generously funded by the University and the Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease, which was formed by a concerned group of Patrons who wanted to support its development. This includes the Duke of Devonshire CBE, who is the Honorary Patron of the Foundation. The donation from the patrons is the largest philanthropic gift to the University from private benefaction since the Edwardian period.

Her Majesty's last visit to the campus was to personally inaugurate the University's Jubilee celebrations back in 1954. 49 years prior to this, Her Majesty's Grandfather King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, officially opened the University of Sheffield in July 1905. The great event was of huge significance to the people of the city, who turned out in their thousands to view the King and Queen personally open their new university. The event was marked with street decorations, triumphal arches and a procession of open carriages.

During this visit to the Centre, Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh toured the new facility including the laboratories, offices and library and unveiled a plaque commemorating the opening. Her Majesty also met with researchers from the team including Professor Pamela Shaw, an international expert in MND and Head of Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield, who will head up the new Institute.

Professor Shaw said: "We are truly privileged that Her Majesty The Queen officially opened SITraN today. The ground-breaking institute will enable us to create a centre of excellence, dedicated to generating much more effective therapies for patients with MND. The support and enthusiasm of the Duke of Devonshire and the Patrons of the Sheffield Institute Foundation have been inspirational, and without them the Centre would not have been possible.

"It has been my goal to increase our understanding of the causes of MND and this new centre will enable us to translate discoveries in our labs into practical clinical therapies. People suffering from the disease will receive treatment as part of clinical trials but the vision of the Institute is first and foremost to create the opportunity for focused study of MND by a world-class team with the skills needed to solve a complex human disease."

Professor Keith Burnett, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, said: "It has been a great honour to welcome Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh to the University of Sheffield to view our ground-breaking new centre. I am extremely proud that the University has opened the first dedicated MND research facility in Europe, which will put both our institution and the city at the forefront of research into neurodegenerative diseases. The team has already made significant progress in understanding the causes of these diseases and I am eagerly anticipating the future breakthroughs that are set to materialise from their research."

Irene Beard, a patron of the Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease, said: "The new institute embodies the hopes of all MND sufferers. They now have a world class scientific Institute devoted to finding the cause of this terrible disease, a treatment and hopefully a cure. The Patrons of the Sheffield Institute Foundation are very proud to have participated in raising funds which have allowed this to happen."

The site for the Institute is situated in Sheffield on Dorset Street off Glossop Road, near the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. The research facility, designed by architects Bond Bryan and constructed by ISG, covers 2,800 m² over two floors and includes research labs, offices and a library. Construction began on the new centre on 21 July 2009 and was completed in October 2010 ready for staff to move in ahead of the launch.