Tour du ALS reaches for the sky!

On May 29, 2019 Nanda Idink, Novacom Amsterdam Client Services Manager, will take part in the Tour du ALS: a challenging bike ride where she and hundreds of other die-hards will bike or run up Mount Ventoux in France for the Dutch ALS Foundation.

In the UK the disease is known as Motor Neurone Disease (MND). Why is she taking on this challenge? “Health is essential to everyone – so if you have the possibility to do something for a good cause, it is important to take on the challenge and help through sports and sponsoring,” says Nanda.

Something which makes Tour du ALS so special is that people with this terrible disease also participate. Because this mountain is so difficult (21 km of continuous climbing to 1570m at 7-8% gradients), this is a fantastic achievement. And that’s the reason she and four other friends from Breukelen near Utrecht called ‘The Breukelse Bende’ (The Gang from Breukelen) want to contribute.

Health is essential to everyone – so if you have the possibility to do something for a good cause, it is important to take on the challenge and help through sports and sponsoring

Nanda has experienced the effects of ALS/MND in her own family as her father-in-law and her grandmother died of the disease, which is quite rare, since there are only around 1500 people with ALS/MND in the Netherlands.

This disease is fatal and around 500 people die every year in The Netherlands (around 2,200 people in the UK). No treatment has yet been found to convert this disease from a fatal to a chronic one. Research and, of course, money are needed for this, so Nanda and her four friends cycle for their deceased relatives and all other patients.

The team has undertaken many sponsorship activities and used their network of individuals and local businesses such as the super market and the bike shop, as well as social media channels to raise money.

And it doesn’t stop there – in collaboration with an online wine shop, the team has developed the Tour du ALS wine package: 6 bottles of different French wine, of which €7,50 per order will go to the team’s donation fund. It is amazing to see how friends, relatives, colleagues and local people are involved to help raise the money.

Visit Nanda’s sponsorship page for more information and to donate here:
https://www.tourduals.nl/actie/nanda-idink

For more information about ALS/MND:
The Dutch ALS Foundation – www.als.nl (Dutch language)
The MND Association – https://www.mndassociation.org (English language)