London Region

Hello folks,

For those of you who do not yet know me my name is Tony Knappett and I have recently accepted the challenge of Chairman for the London Region. I’m married and have a lovely wife ‘Val’ who is a tremendous support in all that I seek to do for people with multiple sclerosis. It is indeed a fact that I would be unable to do what I do, if Val did not support me in it.

I am also Secretary for the Sutton branch, along with looking after transport and helping out with support officer work. In between all this I try and earn a living, so as you have probably worked out I am fairly busy.

So to fulfil this role I am going to need the help of everybody. One of our first major projects, as was set out at our recent national AGM, is the need for the provision of more varied and more reliable local services for all people in our areas affected by MS. We know there are many gaps in these services and we all need to work together to help improve them. There are many services our branches already provide. We need to look at how these can be improved and extended, not on our own, but with the help of neighbouring branches, other professionals and organisations such as the therapy centres.

Some improvements might be to hold informal get-togethers for young members; support groups for young parents, carers and young carers; alternative therapy and exercise sessions, and maybe there is a need for a support group for those more severely affected by MS, as well as the development of different ethnic support groups, where needed. These are just a few ideas, and each branch will know, or seek to find out what their own particular needs are.