Awards

Suzy Holland

From Isle of Man gained the Bronze award.

 

Champion profile:

Suzy is 45 and was diagnosed with MS in 2002. She is married to Chris and has two teenage children. They live on the Isle of Man with their dog and a few tropical fish.

Suzy did a tandem parachute jump at the North West parachute centre at Cark Airfield in Cumbria. She did the jump in June, having booked in February. The time delay allowed Suzy time to raise the sponsorship and get herself in shape for the jump.

Suzy says that she found that people were not aware that she had MS and she was able to raise awareness whilst fundraising. This was where the Justgiving website really helped, as Suzy could direct people to her online sponsorship page. Any vague contacts, such as Suzy's school class reunion, were asked for support. Suzy was even supported on Justgiving by people she had never met as she asked her friends to email it on to their friends.

Suzy also contacted the local newspaper and had an article printed about her jump during MS Week and she sent a follow up story and photo after her jump which was also printed. Both of these articles brought in further sponsors and publicity for the MS Society and local branch. Suzy works for a large company so she also sent an email to all 300+ employees in April explaining that she had MS and what she was doing. This gathered further interest and support even from colleagues she did not know. Finally, Suzy rotated her sponsor forms around village shops so that they were not in the same place all the time.

Since doing the jump, Suzy has had a lot of approaches from people asking how it went and whether they could still sponsor her. When she has collected all her sponsorship, Suzy will send another article to the local paper confirming her fundraising total and to say thank you for everyone's support. Suzy will continue to be active with her local branch and hopes to keep the MS Society in the news locally.