{"id":751311,"date":"2026-02-08T20:56:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/751311\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T20:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:56:21","slug":"scots-dad-battling-mnd-will-protest-outside-holyrood-to-demand-funding-to-find-cure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/751311\/","title":{"rendered":"Scots dad battling MND will protest outside Holyrood to demand funding to find cure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Sommerville will be joined by 100 supporters to demand more help, funding and awareness of the rapidly progressive life-limiting disease.<\/p>\n

04:30, 08 Feb 2026Updated 17:00, 08 Feb 2026<\/p>\n

\"mark<\/p>\n

MND sufferer Mark Sommerville and his wife Erika<\/p>\n

A dad with MND<\/a> will protest outside Holyrood on Wednesday to demand more funding to help find a cure.<\/p>\n

Mark Sommerville<\/a> will be joined by 100 supporters to demand more help, funding and awareness of the rapidly progressive life-limiting disease.<\/p>\n

The dad of four, from Uddingston, Lanarkshire, was given his MND<\/a> diagnosis in October 2024 and told he had 18 months to live.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old has since set up the Mark Sommerville Foundation to fund research, but says a letter to First Minister John Swinney begging for help has gone unanswered and believes the government is not doing enough to help fund new treatments.<\/p>\n

The foundation will meet Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar before the protest.<\/p>\n

Mark<\/a> said: \u201cThose \u00addiagnosed with MND don\u2019t have time to wait. We urgently need more funding \u00adimminently, more research put into finding a cure for this horrendous condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis protest is to highlight the lack of funds, also the lack of awareness from the \u00adScottish Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SNP have been in charge for 19 years but they are not doing enough. People with MND, their lives matter and I just feel they don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

House of Commons Video Grab of MP Frank McNally asking Kerr Starmer a question about the work of his constituent and MND sufferer Mark Sommerville.<\/p>\n

Mark<\/a> was praised by PM Keir Starmer in Westminster in 2024 for his fundraising and told: \u201cWe stand with you in this fight.\u201d However more than a year on, he believes the UK Government is also not doing enough to fund research into treatments.<\/p>\n

The campaigner has also teamed up with pharmaceutical firm Nevrargenics, which is behind a drug which it believes not only stops the impact of MND<\/a> but reverses the damage already done.<\/p>\n

Starmer recognised Mark\u2019s work and that of rugby league star Kevin Sinfield, who has raised a million for sufferers of MND, which took his best friend Rob Burrow\u2019s life in June, aged 41.<\/p>\n

It also took Scotland rugby legend Doddie Weir in 2022, aged 52.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s Jackie Baillie said: \u201cJohn Swinney should meet Mark to hear his case, rather than turning his back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public health minister Jenni Minto said: \u201cI fully understand and support the Mark Sommerville \u00adFoundation\u2019s desire for any new and ground-breaking medicines to be made \u00adavailable as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Sommerville will be joined by 100 supporters to demand more help, funding and awareness of the rapidly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[31136,748,1102,4884,94412,7852,528,76646,712,18695,8545,10613,111493,16,15],"class_list":["post-751311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-anas-sarwar","tag-britain","tag-edinburgh","tag-great-britain","tag-jackie-baillie","tag-john-swinney","tag-labour-party","tag-motor-neurone-disease","tag-scotland","tag-scottish-labour","tag-scottish-national-party","tag-sunday-mail-news","tag-uddingston","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116037012146865126","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}