A former north PE teacher diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in her 30s is gearing up for a gruelling cycle around Loch Ness, to raise funds for a charity which helps people with neurological problems.
Leona Braund was just 33 when she began noticing the symptoms of her condition which included a tremor in her left hand and the freezing up of her feet when trying to walk.
It wasn’t until a school sports day in the summer of 2012 that she was diagnosed, aged 38, and was forced to give up the job she loved doing for 16 years.
The news was hard to take, but Leona’s positive attitude led her to focus on exercise as a good way to manage her condition, and says her motto is “aiming to be the best version of myself that I can be.”
Shortly after her diagnosis she became involved with Funding Neuro, a charity which funds research into advancing treatments and cures of brain related conditions and diseases through technology.
And the mother of two, now aged 43, recently became the charity’s first community ambassador for the Highlands and Islands.
She credits much of the support she has received to the charity’s founder, Glasgow lawyer Bryn Williams – diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the age of 36 – who helped her develop a positive attitude and take each day one step at a time.
This Sunday, she will take on the 66-mile Etape Loch Ness event with her friend April Conroy to raise money for Funding Neuro.
Yesterday Mrs Braund, who is originally from Tarbert in Argyll but now lives just west of Inverness, said the pair have been steadily building up their training in recent months and are confident of success on Sunday.
She said: “I am, by nature, a positive person and I want to be a good role model for my children.
“Bryn was there for me as head of the charity when I really needed his support, and he walked me through that process as someone who had been through it, and I would like to think that now I am giving something back.”
Mrs Braund, who previously taught PE in the Isle of Man, Chester, Atlanta in the USA and then Ayr, said the aim would be to raise £2,000 for Funding Neuro.
At present, the total amount raised stands at about £1,100.
Funding Neuro has seed-funded a major ongoing Parkinson’s clinical trial using new technology, Convection Enhanced Delivery, a therapeutic strategy that was developed to enable targetted delivery of medication to a brain tumour, by-passing the restricting bood-brain-barrier.
The charity will soon run a clinical trial using this revolutionary technology to treat childhood brainstem cancer DIPG (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Giloma), which no child has yet survived.
As a mother of two girls, Mrs Braund is thrilled that her fundraising will help give these children a chance – and their families hope.
She added: “This charity is close to my heart because it’s neurological and not just about Parkinson’s. Their work is exciting and hopefully it will result in a breakthrough in many capacities and there is lots of promise.”
Anyone who would like to donate should visit Mrs Braund’s JustGiving page at
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/LeonaBraund
and the charity’s website at
