MND Scotland receives £25,000 boost from Apache

People in Scotland affected by motor neuron disease (MND) are set to benefit from a generous £25,000 donation from Apache North Sea. 

Apache raises funds through sales of confectionary and other items offshore and donates the funds to charities. MND Scotland was nominated as a beneficiary by Apache employees, Ross Stewart and Vince Jones. 

The donation will help MND Scotland support people who have received the devastating diagnosis whilst helping fund vital research into treatments and a cure for the brutal disease.  

MND is a rapidly progressing terminal illness, which stops signals from the brain reaching the muscles. This may cause someone to lose the ability to walk, talk, eat, drink or breathe.  

Apache employee Ross Stewart nominated MND Scotland on behalf of the Forbes family, who are long-standing supporters of the charity, raising over £46,000 to date. The donation was announced at a golf day in Buckie in August which raised a further £13,282.  

His colleague, Vince Jones, who also nominated the charity after losing a family member to MND, recently completed the Three Peaks Challenge, climbing the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales within a 24-hour period in support of MND. 

Accepting the donation, Jonathan Mitchell, head of fundraising at MND Scotland, said: “This is a fantastic sum of money and a very welcome boost for MND Scotland. We really appreciate being nominated by members of the Apache team who have lost friends and family to MND. 

“Apache’s generous donation will support MND-SMART, a pioneering drugs trial designed to speed up the time it takes to find medicines that can slow, stop, or reverse the progression of, MND. 

“Thank you to everyone at Apache that made a contribution to this charity fund, this money will make a real difference to those affected by MND and bolster our research efforts so that one day we find a cure for this devastating disease.”  

“MND is an illness which has had an impact on a number of our Apache team and their families,” said North Sea production operations manager Ross Stewart. “We hope this donation from our offshore workforce can support additional research into this devastating illness and help other families in the future. The teams working on our platforms in the Beryl and Forties fields take great pride in contributing to deserving charities like MND Scotland.”