A group of mums who have been friends since primary school took on a charity challenge to raise money and awareness for an incurable disease.

Natalie Kirby, from Sittingbourne, and her close pals Sarah Leigh, Emma Bonnar, Josie Ryan, Hayley Cork and Kathryn Denham decided to walk a mile every day for seven days, with their children, in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association.

The fundraiser came about after Sarah’s mum Denise Bonney, 63, who is known as Sue, was diagnosed with MND in October 2019.

Natalie, 39, said: “With the year we’ve all had, it’s been really hard to support Sue and the family. We saw the ‘7 in 7 challenge’ on the MND Association website and thought we’d get our children involved.

“There were 11 children, ranging from 14 down to two, and some have additional needs and they completed it, so it was quite an achievement. They walked, ran, bounced, cartwheeled – some did over a mile a day.

“It was just lovely to be able to do it in the name of Sue Bonney.

“We are such a close-knit group of friends, we just wanted to do something to show how much she is loved – there’s only so many dinners you can cook people.”

The group completed the challenge at the end of February.

Their fundraising target was originally £77 – because of the ‘7 in 7 challenge’ – but they’ve so far raised more than £1,500.

Natalie said: “None of us anticipated the response we got from family and friends.

“We can’t thank everyone enough. There’s some incredibly generous donations.”

MND affects the brain and nerves and causes muscle weakness, twitches, slurred speech and difficulty swallowing - symptoms which get worse over time.

The mum-of-two added: “MND is a disease that many people don’t know about until they’re affected by it.

“To see someone, and a family, you love and care about go through something so hard and not be able to offer the support we normally would have, due to the pandemic, has just been heart-wrenching.

“All we wanted to do was show them our love and support, and if we can also help raise awareness of the disease, for which there is no cure, and help other people identify a diagnosis, that’d be amazing.”

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