Daughter takes steps to thank charity

Georgina Brookes, from Otley, will take part in the 26-mile Jane Tomlinson Walk for All in the Yorkshire Dales next month in aid of MPD Voice.

The 26-year-old said she wanted to give something back for the support it has given her mother Margaret, who suffers from the myeloproliferative disorder thrombocythemia.

The incurable condition, which she was diagnosed with nearly ten years ago, means her bone marrow produces too many platelets – the cells that cause blood to clot.

She has to manage it with chemotherapy in tablet form to kill them off as well as taking blood-thinning medication.

“It just makes day-to-day life hard,” said Miss Brookes, 26. “We just take every day as it comes, really.”

She will take part in the walk on Sunday, August 19 with boyfriend Richard Burgess and friends Lewys Forsey and Freddie Gabbergas.

They all work alongside Mrs Brookes, 59, at Stockeld Park, near Wetherby, which is sponsoring them.

Mrs Brookes said: “I am overwhelmed that my friends and colleagues are taking on such an enormous challenge. I can’t thank them enough.

“As this disease is quite rare, you can be left feeling isolated with a lack of information.

“MPD Voice has provided me with help and support and I hope this event will raise more awareness of my condition and the charity as a whole.”

The group have been training together and recently took part in the Otley Walking Festival.

“It’s something we’ve picked as a bit of a challenge – we’ve never done anything this big before,” said Miss Brookes.

The Jane Tomlinson Appeal held its first Walk For All event last year, welcoming 2,000 walkers to the countryside around Settle. There are four different routes, of 26, 14, five and four-and-a-half miles.

To sponsor Miss Brookes’s group, visit www.justgiving.com/26milechallenge