Guardtech leads fundraising drive for MS sufferer

Published: 10-May-2022

The cleanroom construction company donated £4,000 to support a close friend of family business

Guardtech Group has led a campaign which helped to raise £17,000 for a family friend suffering with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Guardtech Commercial Director Mark Wheeler and Marketing Manager Joe Shackley joined forces with a group of their ex-school friends to raise the money for Joe Martin, a multiple sclerosis sufferer from Woolpit, who had been struggling to eat a range of foods for some time.

Having already seen his quality of life deteriorate significantly owing to MS, Mr Martin had dropped to just seven stone in weight by the time the group of friends decided to act.

Mr Wheeler and Mr Shackley had initially set up a GoFundMe campaign in the hope of raising some money to help Mr Martin receive medical therapy known as FMT that he couldn’t get via the NHS, with Haverhill company Guardtech pledging £4,000 towards the campaign.

“As a family business, we try to do our bit to help out as many good causes as we can,” said Wheeler. “And the Guardtech Directors kindly agreed to donate up to £4,000, with the hope that we’d get around the same amount in outside donations.”

After sharing the GoFundMe page to their Facebook pages and beyond, friends, family and ex-colleagues of Mr Martin rallied around the cause, helping the fundraising total meet the £10,000 mark in just 24 hours.

The total eventually reached £13,276 (£17,276 with the company’s donation) before it was closed officially at the start of May.

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