“My Mum is my inspiration. I feel helpless watching her struggle with her condition and realised fundraising was my way of supporting the vital research required to find potential cures for her and others like her”.
My name is Heidi Rose. I am 31 years old and so far I have raised more than £6,000 for MPN research, but I have no plans to stop and am already working on my next fundraising goal.
My Mum has been living with ET for many years and it has been hard to watch her deal with the challenges the condition has thrown at her. Watching her journey made me feel I had to do something to support this amazing charity, as the team has done so much for my Mum. I feel blessed to have her as my role model, and wanted to do something to help her and everyone living with MPNs to help find a cure. I know my donations can’t unlock a miracle, but I do know the money is vital to help the research teams work to find a cure.
The Dive
Once I had made my mind up to start fundraising, I decided if I was going to do it then it had to be a ‘Go Big or Go Home’ challenge and I eventually decided on a skydive. I was terrified for the dive, but on the day I was in the first plane, so didn’t have too much time to think about what I was about to do. The fear before I stepped out of the plane was unreal but the adrenaline rush was amazing and the sense of achievement and the sight of my Mum at the end of the dive still brings tears to my eyes. The harsh reality is that one moment of fear for me before I stepped out of of the plane was nothing compared to the battle many people with MPNs face every day. I really believe that every fundraising act can help make a difference and I’m happy to play my part.
My Fundraising Journey
The experience has humbled me. I started with a £1500 target, but the support I got from friends, family and the wider local business community in Thanet where we live, blew me away and I realised that my goal was too small, so I went for it and set a new goal of £5000. It became my focus, to make my Mum proud, but also raise the money to support much needed research into the condition. I worked with the team at MPN to create posters that local businesses put in their to help support me, I even worked out how to create a QR code so that people could donate more quickly The kindness and support I got from local businesses in the Thanet area where we live, alongside strangers who spoke to me at local events where I had a table with leaflets on MPN and a charity donation tub, just blew me away. And I Just have no words for the feelings I have for my friends and family, as well as Debbie from the MPN team who were by my side throughout this challenge.
What next?
The skydive has unearthed a passion in my to help: I love it. I’m onto my next challenge in September an abseil at St Thomas Hospital in London, which I must admit feels even more terrifying than the skydive, but I will do it no matter how scared I feel. I’ve set myself a fundraising target of £1000 and if you are reading this and are thinking that you’d love to get involved in some way, I would just say ‘Go for it’. You won’t regret it.
