Oakwood names its Charity of the Year 2007
19th February 2007: Oakwood Theme Park today announced that their chosen Charity of the Year is the Swansea and District branch of the Myasthenia Gravis Association (www.mgauk.org), which supports sufferers of the so called ‘Rag Doll Illness’.
Chosen from 71 nominations to become Oakwood’s Charity of the Year 2007, the Oakwood team will now assist the charity to raise awareness about Myasthenia Gravis, an autoimmune disease that can affect any age group causing fluctuating and sometimes fatal muscle weakness.
Over the next twelve months the Oakwood team will help to increase public and medical knowledge about the disease in a variety of ways, such as displaying posters and leaflets in the park and funding materials such as leaflets and CD Roms to hand out at a special meeting for GPs in the area planned for later this year. Oakwood will also help the branch to raise money to support research into finding a cure for the disease through events such as sponsored fun runs.
Managing Director, Paddy McNamara said: “We had such a great response to our call for nominations, it was very difficult to choose just one charity as there are so many worthy of support. We chose the Swansea and District branch of the Myasthenia Gravis Association as our Charity of the Year because this disease is relatively unheard of yet it can affect anyone of us. We felt we could really help increase public knowledge of the condition, give some financial support to the charity and in doing so support families affected by the illness within West Wales.
“The whole Oakwood team are looking forward to working with the Swansea branch throughout the year and we will be doing as much as we can to help them with their cause.”
Information on Myasthenia Gravis:
Myasthenia Gravis happens when the body’s immune system, in the form of antibodies, attacks and damages the nerve signal reception areas causing a breakdown in communication between nerve and muscle, which results in a loss of effectiveness of the muscle. Activities taken for granted by most of us, simple things like eating food, lifting arms, speaking to friends or laughing become difficult or even impossible at times for myasthenics.
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