IT WAS a poignant family affair when Luton businessman Jon Cherry, 29, and three of his four sisters completed the Great South Run in Portsmouth in memory of their much-loved mum Valerie.
The former Great Ormond Street nurse, who brought them up single-handed, died of motor neurone disease in May only three months after being diagnosed.
The quartet raised more than £4,500 which they hope will be used to provide customised wheelchairs for other sufferers.
Jon, who lives in Wardown Park and works for insurance broker Willis, said: “Mum was diagnosed with frontal temporal disorder – a protein imbalance in the brain – about five years ago.
“But anyone outside the family wouldn’t have known she was ill.” In November she was transferred to the Royal Free after a couple of falls left her with no sensation in her legs.
“Never in a million years did we think it would be MND,” Jon said.
“Even though we were all by her bedside when she died, it was a pretty brutal time.”
For more information visit www.mndassociation.org.
> To donate visit www.justgiving.com/jon-cherry