There’s not long now until the Leeds 10K on Sunday, 7 July, and our Nick Smith Foundation team of dozens of runners is nearly complete.

Thank you to everyone who is taking part – if you can, please support our team. Here are the fundraising pages set up so far by our amazing runners:

• Team HLC – Running the Leeds 10K #ForSmudger
• Julia’s 10k
• Lauren & Gareth Leeds 10K Page
• Paul’s 10k #forsmudger
• Peter’s page
• Linds’ page

We also have a Team page which you can donate to if you’d like to support everyone running #ForSmudger. You can donate here >>

We’re aiming to improve the support available for families who face the same awful situation that Nick’s family have gone through in the past two years.

The Foundation is working with the Motor Neurone Disease Association to develop a ‘Living With’ Box which can be used to make and store memories for those who are diagnosed with any terminal illness.

The two organisations hosted a workshop on Saturday (11 May) during the Pushing Up Daisies festival in Todmorden aimed at sharing ideas for the personal pre-bereavement resource for children and families.

Called ‘What was Daddy’s Favourite Ice Cream’, a question asked by Nick’s children (aged 4 and 6) after his death, it focused on how best to remember the little things, questions which only a parent would know the answer to, and which their children would like to know in the future.

Stephen Naylor, Chair of the Nick Smith Foundation, said:

“When Nick died at the age of 38, his two children Hadyn and Georgia were left without a father. The impact of that is felt every day but they want to remember their daddy, and we want to ensure others facing the same tragedy get more support to capture and store memories for the future.

“The ‘Living With’ Boxes aim to help children who are facing the death of a parent by creating lasting memories pre-bereavement and providing the resources to record these together. At a time when it can be hard to know where to turn for help, we hope the Box will give ideas to capture thoughts and moments which mean when someone you love is no longer living, you’re still living with them.”

The workshop ended with those taking part being given vouchers from The Piece Hall’s ice cream parlour Blondin’s so they could discover what each other’s favourite ice cream flavour was.

Laura Willix, Children and Young People’s Service Development Manager at the MND Association, added:

“This session was a great opportunity for children, young people and families affected by MND, to come together to create personalised memories that will hopefully increase their emotional resilience and wellbeing, when faced with a diagnosis, and the impact this has.

“We hope that families will have had an opportunity to begin discussions about the benefits of memory making and have started to record some of the really important ‘little things’!”

You can find out more about the Pushing Up Daisies event here

Almost 200 people came together for an afternoon of steam trains, treats and family fun at Brighouse’s Ravensprings Park on Saturday (4 May).

The event was hosted by The Nick Smith Foundation to raise money for the charity set up in memory of 38-year old Nick ‘Smudger’ Smith, who died from Motor Neurone Disease in December 2017.

Nick and his son Hadyn, now aged six, regularly attended the monthly open days and loved riding on the miniature steam trains of the Brighouse and Halifax Model Engineers.

The event was supported by volunteers from Barclays and the Fixby and Brighouse Women’s Institute who baked a selection of amazing cakes and biscuits which were sold to raise money in support of the charity’s aims.

See the full gallery on Facebook >>

When someone dies, it’s hard to remember the little things – the questions only daddy would know the answer to.

Join Rachel, whose husband died aged 38 leaving two young children, the Nick Smith Foundation and MND Association to share ideas for a personal pre-bereavement resource for children and families.

Help us create something really special as part of this year’s Pushing Up Daisies – so they’ll always know it was vanilla.

Find out more about Pushing Up Daisies here >>

We’ve done it. We’ve reached our target. 

One year ago, we set a target – to raise £50,000 for the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) and their pioneering work to find out more about Motor Neurone Disease and continue their efforts to find treatments and, ultimately, a cure.

The target has now been reached and, as we approach our first anniversary on 1st May, Nick’s wife Rachel and some of our Trustees visited the research centre in South Yorkshire to handover the money and find out more about the support it will provide.

The donation will go towards the purchase of a new piece of equipment, a Nanostring Ncounter. The state-of-the-art machine is a research tool which supports the work to find out more about MND and, crucially, about what is needed to change the way the disease develops.

Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Director and Founder of SITraN, accepted the money on behalf of the centre. She said:

“This wonderful donation from The Nick Smith Foundation is being used to provide cutting edge scientific equipment for the research teams within the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) as they work hard to understand the mechanisms of motor neurone injury in MND and develop new treatment approaches to heal and protect these precious cells.

“The Nanostring machine enables us to message the level of expression of many different genes in MND cells compared to healthy cells which gives us a very important picture of the disease process.

“The support of the Foundation team and all of those good-hearted people who have given their support is hugely appreciated by all of the researchers within SITraN. Thank you so much for your generosity and for helping our research effort in such a significant way.”

In the year since the charity was formed, hundreds of people have been involved in fundraising. From raffles to rugby tournaments and the Three Peaks to the Great North Run, tens of thousands of pounds has been raised.

As well as backing research into MND, we support children having to face the death of a parent at a young age and encourages children to take up rugby league – the sport Nick loved.

Stephen Naylor, Nick’s brother-in-law, chairs The Nick Smith Foundation. He said:

“In the 18 months since Nick died, we have had a shared determination to ensure his legacy lives on. This charity, in his memory and his name, is already making a difference and we know this £50,000 donation to the amazing SITraN in Sheffield will make a real difference to the fight to smash MND.

“On behalf of Nick’s wife Rachel, and all the Trustees of the charity, I want to thank every single person, organisation and company who has raised money, donated and supported us over the past 12 months. Much more is planned for the rest of 2019 and the continued support for The Nick Smith Foundation, and our family, is appreciated more than we can ever say.”

On Sunday, 23 June, Pete Emmett and Lea Roberts will be your hosts for an afternoon of smiles and laughs as we bring you Comedy for Smudger. They’ll be joined by special guest Paul Sculthorpe.

With pie and peas included in your ticket price, and two of the finest comedians the country has ever seen (we’ve been told to write this as part of the contract 😊), it’s bound to be a brilliant afternoon.

It’s also a perfect gift for Father’s Day. Get your tickets now >>

Thank you to shoppers and staff at Harveys of Halifax for their generosity during February.

Our Valentine’s Raffle, the sale of cakes and your donations at the till raised an amazing £585.90.

Thank you for the support #ForSmudger.

We’re hoping for Bags of Help from shoppers this March and April!

The Nick Smith Foundation is one of three groups shortlisted to receive a cash award from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative and shoppers at the supermarket’s stores in Brighouse and across Huddersfield can vote for the organisation until 30 April 2019.

We’re asking for support for our Memory Box Project which will be used to help achieve one of our three aims – to support children who have had to face the death of a parent at a young age, the tragedy which Nick’s children Hadyn, aged 6, and Georgia, aged 4, are having to live with.

The charity with the most votes will receive £4,000, the second-placed charity receives £2,000 and £1,000 will be awarded to the charity in third place.

We’re one of the projects which shoppers can vote for at:

• Tesco Superstore, Brighouse HD6 1RZ
• Tesco Express, Dalton HD5 9LA
• Tesco Express, Bradley HD2 1UU
• Tesco Express, Scisset HD8 9HU
• Tesco Express, Moldgreen HD5 8DE

Click here for the Tesco Store Locator >>

Stephen Naylor, Chair of the Nick Smith Foundation, said:

“Every penny counts for a small charity such as The Nick Smith Foundation and the money from Tesco Bags of Help will make a real difference. We hope Tesco shoppers will choose to support us with their blue tokens during March and April and we promise it will have a big impact.

“Our Memory Box Project aims to support children who are having to face the worst possible situation – the death of a parent at a young age. Nothing can ever take away the pain, but we hope our work can support them through some of the darkest days imaginable.”

A team of eleven from a Brighouse nursery have signed up to take on the Leeds 10K in memory of the dad of one of the children they look after who died aged 38.

The group, from HLC Nursery on Bradford Road, will raise money for us ahead of July’s run.

Nick’s daughter Georgia and nephew, Dominic, both currently attend the nursery while son Hadyn went there for four years before going to school.

The team of eleven who are taking part include nursery manager Jade Rose and deputy manager Alice Imeson. They will be joined by Amelia Barker, Sam Helliwell, Samantha Kaye, Paige Ledingham, Leonie Ledingham, Nicole Whittaker, Jenny Crossley, Emma Sladden-Twigg and Courtney Archibald.

The team’s training is getting underway and parents at HLC Nursery will be asked to support their efforts in the coming months. Donations can be made at www.nicksmithfoundation.org.uk/teamhlc

Charlotte Roebuck, Managing Director of HLC Nursery, said:

“Nick and his family are an important part of our nursery community and we have been proud to support the charity since it was formed last year. Its aims, especially to help children who face the awful reality of losing a parent at an early age, are ones that mean a huge amount to all of us.

“We are delighted that eleven of our team came forward to sign up for the Leeds 10K and hope that as many people as possible will support them as they begin their training for the run this summer. Most of them are not regular runners so it is a big challenge for them and we look forward to cheering them on through the streets of Leeds.”

Stephen Naylor, Chair of the Nick Smith Foundation, is Nick’s brother-in-law, uncle to Nick’s children Hadyn and Georgia and dad to Nick’s nephew Dominic who attends HLC Nursery. He added:

“Everyone at HLC Nursery has been hugely supportive of us as a family in the months since Nick’s death and we are thrilled so many of the team have signed up to be part of our charity’s team for the Leeds 10K in July.

“They work incredibly hard to look after our children day-in, day-out, so the fact that they are taking the time to train for the run and then take part in the event is humbling. We can’t thank them enough.”

Click here to donate >>