NASS held its first ever event for World Ankylosing Spondylitis Day yesterday: it was a great success. The weather was on the brisk side, but the rain held off and our determined runners and walkers turned out in force. They ranged from 6 month old Polyanna and her family to my soon-to-turn 90 mother who completed the 5k walk with her grandson (she was slightly disappointed with her time).
It was a wonderful day; there was a great spirit of friendship and fun. And as well as raising money for NASS, it has also helped to raise awareness of AS: people wearing the infamous NASS T shirts were stopped and asked about AS as they walked; people came up to the start tent and asked about AS and why we were there and even my newsagent wanted to know why I was wearing a bright orange T shirt and what it meant. As they say in the TESCO ad, “Every little helps.”
There will be a selection of photographs on the website as soon as we have them back from our official event photographer. Money is still coming in and this is likely to take some time but the final total will be reported in AS News and on the website.
I would like to send a huge thank you to everyone who turned out on the 
day: trustees, members, friends, family, supporters, children and dogs. I would like to send a special thank you to all the volunteers who helped as marshalls: we could not have run the eventwithout them.
And finally a particular thank you to the NASS assistant director, Ingrid van der Weide, who organised the event and all the NASS staff who helped on the day: Jill Hamilton who signed everyone up, Steve Devlin who helped with set up and marshalling and Sally Dickinson who raced round Richmond Park on her bicycle trouble shooting.
Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm.
And next year? The date I have in mind is Sunday 8 May 2011. Watch this space!
Jane Skerrett
Director
10 May 2010
