Fundraising is the life blood behind making the services offered at the Neuro Therapy Centre happen and it is a continuous responsibility for the fundraising team to keep creating new opportunities and ideas to keep funds coming into the Centre.

For many years the Centre used to run a challenge event called the MS Challenge which was an outdoor event that took place in north Wales involving a team of runners carrying a person with MS around an often muddy course! It was great fun and always popular but due to a change of circumstance at the location that was used; the event could no longer take place. This was a great loss to the Centre and its members, as well as a challenge to the fundraising team of what could take it's place.

Zip-wire, climbing, running and swimming challenges have all happened since and whilst these have been successful, nothing had managed to reach the momentum and impact that the MS Challenge once had.

This year an idea was sparked and the team started to put together the NT Challenge. The idea being that for one month people could decide their own challenge - whether that was something they wanted to do more of, something they've always wanted to achieve, or a bad habit they wanted to give up.

Our members, their friends and family, and the Centre's team took to the challenge with gusto and commitment to a number of challenges were pledged - from continuing to write a book, lose weight, running a stall at a car boot sale, baking and selling cakes, and exercise challenges.

July was a busy month, with some people also starting their challenges in June or planning them for September too.

Many people also utilised the Centre's new website to help them raise their sponsorship too and it was a great first use for this new addition to its website - which also helped to spread the word about the challenge.

What was also nice was the stories that members gave us about why they wanted to take on a challenge to support the Centre, with many saying that therapies at the Centre had made such a difference to them that they wanted to give something back. There were such ambitious challenges that they took on too - from swimming 100 lengths (1.5 miles), virtually rowing the distance of the Channel using the Centre's gym equipment, through to swimming a marathon and cycling 100km on the Centre's Therabike. Not forgetting the Centre team completing the distance from Liverpool to London in front of an audience in the Centre's coffee lounge.

We will be presenting certificates of achievement at our AGM at the Centre on 6th September where we will be celebrating the challenge and all its participants.

Sponsorship money is still coming in; but we will be repeating the challenge event in 2020 and probably over a longer period too - so get those thinking caps on and spread the word to all to get involved. Money raised from fundraising events like this makes such a difference to our Centre and people with neurological conditions across North Wales, Cheshire and the Wirral. What's stopping you?