Industry participants and firms from across London’s futures and options industry are coming together to hold a charity event next month to raise awareness and funds for research into Motor Neurone Disease.

On April 18, the market will come together for the launch event of the ‘City Against MND Network,’ a new initiative set up by a group of people who work in the City of London that have been touched by the disease.

MND (also known as ALS in North America) is a fatal, rapidly progressing disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. It kills a third of people within a year and more than half within two years of diagnosis. It attacks the nerves that control movement so muscles no longer work. It can leave people locked in a failing body, unable to move, talk, swallow and eventually breathe. There is currently no cure.

The event and group is supported by Fidessa – which is hosting the launch evening at its London office – media relations firm The Realisation Group and the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), with the evening designed to introduce the group’s work to the market, and the research project that City Against MND is aiming to fund, while increasing awareness about the disease and the devastating effects on those living with it.

Speaking at the launch will be the MNDA patron and former England Test cricketer Chris Broad, Dr Brian Dickie, director of research development at the MNDA and David Setters, FOW founder and long-time managing director and publisher, event organiser and consultant at Contango Markets who has been living with MND since 2012.

“Up to 5,000 people in the UK are living with MND and six people die from it each day,” Setters told FOW. “It is not as rare as people think with recent statistics showing that a person's lifetime risk of developing MND is just 1 in 300. As in any other walk of life, it will have touched many people working in financial services.

“The City Against MND Network aims to provide a focus for corporate, collaborative and individual giving from the City, its institutions and service companies. I’ve already found several individuals in the futures business who have been in some way “touched” by the disease, whether through family, colleagues or friends,” added Setters.

The group is hoping to help fund a research project at the new Francis Crick Institute at St Pancras run by University College London. “With the Institute being so close to its doorstep, we hope that the City and its institutions will get behind this very important work and help accelerate our advance towards a long hoped for cure,” said Setters.

To register for the event, go to: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/city-against-mnd-networking-evening-tickets-22465532011

For more information, please contact David Setters on davidsetters57@gmail.com