Fresh from the England cricket team’s world cup victory, fans of the game got another fix in July when organisations from across the futures industry took part in a full-day, six-a-side cricket tournament to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Braving record-breaking temperatures in the City of London, teams from Euronext, Intertrader, Interxion, INTL FCStone, KRM22 and the London Metal Exchange competed in the third annual David Setters Trophy where, after a round-robin tournament, Interxion and Euronext faced each other in a closely contested final. Interxion went on to be crowned the winners.
The tournament, the brainchild of Nick Spencer Skeen, chief of staff for the U.K. arm of INTL FCStone, and Keith Todd, chairman and CEO of KRM22, is named in honour of their good friend David Setters, for many years the publisher of industry publication FOW and founding trustee of Futures for Kids. Setters was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, or MND, in 2012.
Funds from the cricket tournament will be donated to the MND Association through City Against MND Network, a group that Setters founded in 2016 to promote the work of the charity and to raise money on its behalf.
Organisers of this year’s event included Dan Carter at KRM22 and Danny Turano, a technology management consultant, with a host of futures industry professionals umpiring, selling and buying raffle tickets and turning up to show their support.
"The outstanding support of the event from all the teams, sponsors and the crowd ensured that a total close to £25,000 was raised," Carter told MarketVoice.
While providing a good-natured competitive environment, the aim of the day ultimately was to raise awareness for MND Association, which works to improve access to care and support for people with MND, their families and carers. It also funds and promotes research, and campaigns to raise awareness so the needs of people with MND are recognised and addressed by wider society.
MND – also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in North America – is a disease that is characterised by the progressive degeneration of the motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It results in the wasting of muscles, causing increasing loss of mobility in the limbs, as well as difficulties with speaking, swallowing and breathing.
A person’s lifetime risk of developing MND is around 1 in 300 and there is currently no cure. In the U.K. alone, it claims the lives of six people every day, killing a third of those diagnosed within a year and more than half within two years.
While MND has gradually robbed Setters of the use of his hands and arms and has weakened his neck and upper body, he still has his voice. Using voice recognition software, he continues to write about his experiences with the equanimity and strength of character for which he is known, and to campaign on behalf of those with MND who are no longer able to speak or whose lives have been claimed rapidly by the disease.
He has been instrumental in several charitable activities, including a celebrity quiz night in London, which was attended by Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte Hawkins and ex-England Test cricketer Chris Broad, whose wife died of the disease in 2010 and in whose name the family set up the Broad Appeal to raise funds for the MND Association.
With the three cricket matches and the celebrity quiz night, the City Against MND Network has raised more than £100,000.
"We are specifically targeting MND research with the City Against MND Network, helping the MND Association to fund a project at the Francis Crick Institute, a leading biomedical research centre affiliated with University College London," Setters said. "The research is exploring how faults in a protein called TDP-43 lead to the development of MND. 97% of people with MND have build-ups of this, which seems to play a central role in the disease. Understanding how this triggers MND development will enable researchers to focus on designing therapies that rectify these problems."
Setters has also been involved in protests at Westminster about reassessing people for benefits with conditions – including MND – that will not get better. He recently assisted with a petition at 10 Downing Street calling on the government to help people with diagnosed terminal conditions to get fast-track access to benefits, so they can spend more time with their loved ones than navigating and fighting a bewildering system.
"Helping to raise funds and awareness for the MND Association has become ‘work replacement therapy’ for me," Setters said. "With 50% of people dying within two years of diagnosis, I consider myself fortunate to have a more slowly progressive version of MND and that’s why I can get involved. Having spent more than 30 years in and around the futures business, the support I have received from friends in the industry has been hugely uplifting and a great boost to me and my family."
For more information about the tournament and to make a donation, visit the David Setters Trophy page on Just Giving.
For information about the City Against MND Network and to sign up, please visit its LinkedIn page.
