Fundraiser of the Year Award 2023
We are thrilled to announce that we have two winners of our 2023 Fundraiser of the Year Award: Antony Rose and Michelle Gillies! These two incredible supporters went ‘above and beyond’ to support our vital research by spending 2023 raising funds and awareness in their local communities.
Antony Rose:
Antony was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019 and has been a longtime supporter of Cure Parkinson’s since being inspired by our late co-founder, Tom Isaacs. Before embarking on his latest challenge – a ’50 mile slam’ – Antony had already taken on two incredible races for Cure Parkinson’s: the Thames Path 100 in 2020 and the South Downs Way 100 in 2021.
The ’50 mile slam’ saw Antony run four 50 mile races between April and September 2023 to raise more funds for our research, and towards the end of the year he decided to push himself even further by taking on the Winter Downs 200 (a 200 mile race with a 96 hour time limit) too! But running 400 miles is no easy feat, so support from friends and family kept Antony going.
Apart from crossing the finish lines and being out in some wonderful locations, it’s been about the people. My training and running buddies, support crews or friends who’ve been meeting me after the races – they all gave me some amazing boosts along the way.”
Antony Rose
Michelle Gillies:
Meanwhile our joint winner Michelle spent much of 2023 truly going the extra mile with her fundraising. Michelle’s father is living with Parkinson’s and she has found it incredibly difficult watching his condition deteriorate over the past 11 years. To help support our research, last year Michelle signed up to run the 2024 London Marathon for us and began fundraising straight away. She set herself an ambitious fundraising target (which she smashed before 2023 had drawn to a close) and planned some wonderful events to raise money and spread the word about our work.
Although balancing a full time job, organising fundraising events and training for a marathon has been tough, Michelle has found the process very rewarding and raised over £18,200 for us so far!
The support I received from the community of Peterhead was overwhelming and I can’t thank everyone enough. It feels very emotional to have raised this amount for a charity that is very close to my heart.”
Michelle Gillies
Thank you to our nominees!
We would also like to thank our amazing nominees: Caroline Cockerham and the Otley Zebra’s Under 14s Rugby Club, who organised community fundraising challenges and events; Thomas Cooper who ran the London Marathon and cycled in our Raid Ventoux challenge; the Positively Parkinson’s team who created their Big Tri and Mini Tri; Neil Russell who ran an incredible 970 miles from London to Barcelona; and, prior to becoming trustees, Alison Anderson who cycled from Cheltenham to Barcelona and Phill Robinson who made us charity partner of Boardwave.
