Massively enjoyed the run. Didn't walk and got less than an hour (54m13s) and £162 raised so far for MSF so I'm happy.
"Since 1988, MSF has treated more than 60,000 patients with leishmaniasis ... but the best of efforts are dwarfed by the limitations of existing treatments and world's lack of interest in this forgotten disease."—MSF
A few weeks ago I was diagnosed with a rare flesh-eating tropical disease called leishmaniasis. Affecting just two Britons a year on average, the disease still kills 80,000 worldwide. The reason for this discrepancy is that leishmaniasis is a disease of the Third World. The Middle East, South America and Asia are where it kills those without medical aid.
It was seen by six NHS doctors before it was realised not just to be a normal skin infection and that's in Britain, with one of the best healthcare systems in the world. In the developing world, the doctors simply don't have the facilities to deal with it. The treatment is eighty years old, expensive and poisonous. As leishmaniasis is a disease that affects the poor, there's no money in looking for new treatments.
I have chosen to donate sponsorship from my 10k run to Médecins Sans Frontières as they are one of the few organisations willing to help in areas where it is rife and prevent just some of the unnecessary deaths that occur.
The second, more grandiose and less personal, reason is that Médecins Sans Frontières is one of the few charities to genuinely have no respect for international borders YET still have the balls to criticise political regimes and bodies that inflict and abet human tragedy.
Please donate generously to this important charity.
Médecins Sans Frontières
Leishmaniasis on Wikipedia
Leishmaniasis on patient.co.uk
Ben Fogle - the other Briton to be suffering
James Orbinski's Imperfect Offering - about the work of Médecins Sans Frontières
http://www.justgiving.com/jammastergirish-msf
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