News:- Multiple Sclerosis News Surrey

ITV programme next Tues 21 July – featuring John Hambly from the Samson Centre receiving a well deserved award.

Some of you will recall that John Hambly, our Vice-Chairman and member of the Samson Centre, received an award back in March from Sport Gives Back. It was a very special evening at the Royal Institution in London and several sports celebrities were there.

John received an award for the huge amount of work he has done in
having the vision to create a MS Centre in Guildford to help those who live with Multiple Sclerosis. He had the support and backing of a great team of volunteers to aid the massive fundraising effort to have the Centre built around 15 years ago. John’s rugby club – the Actonians, have been amazing in their ongoing support for the Samson Centre with huge amounts of fundraising and money raised over many years for the Samson Centre.

You now have the chance to see the Sport Gives Back award programme on ITV next Tuesday 21 July at 10.45pm. Do watch it if you possibly can.

So good to be able to re-start oxygen therapy again after 3.5 months of the Centre being closed.

Cyril, one of our longstanding volunteer Lead Operators is with one of our oxygen users, demonstrating new use of masks and visors at the Centre, additional hygiene protocols and a socially distanced timetable.

Lovely to have most of our oxygen operators back with us again and happily helping those who come in for their oxygen therapy.

So we are back in business after lockdown.

As you know, things will look and feel a bit different to normal. Our physios will be wearing scrubs which have kindly been donated. They are also required to wear masks, gloves and aprons when carrying out their work, so we thought it would be good for you to see these photos. Your temperature will also be taken by an infra red thermometer. and there will be a register and hand sanitising station all set up.
We really look forward to seeing some of our members in person very soon.

The Hambly family did it again! What a great evening on Saturday for the online quiz that Megan and John Hambly organised for us.

Thanks so much to everyone who joined in with the quiz. A brilliant £815 was raised!

Here’s to the next online event! Thanks so much Megan for organising a really slick and fun quiz and to John for being a very entertaining quizmaster!

Alice Collins has set up a lovely fundraiser – taking doorstep photographs of you and your loved ones.

Please contact her direct via
or on 07341 440993 in order to book in for your own photo. She will travel to Godalming, Guildford and Woking.

Minimum suggested donation of £10 for each photo taken and further information via Alice’s JustGiving page

Thanks so much Alice for this lovely idea to help the Samson Centre for MS.

Many of you will not be aware that over the last 5 years John Hambly, our Vice Chairman and founding trustee, has been writing his memoirs

A large part of which is based around the development of the Centre, life’s lessons learnt through his Cornish upbringing, and experiences through his beloved game of rugby.

I am delighted to announce that Samson Rising will be published on the 21st August and is available for pre-order now through his publisher, United Writers or Waterstones. A nominal donation from each book sale will go to the Samson Centre.

I read the manuscript and can thoroughly recommend it! Order your copy now from either the Unitedwriters or Waterstones

Click the image to Visit our YouTube Videos

Exercises and stretches for people with MS. A focus on posture, stretches, breathing and gentle movement.

Led by Sara McGowan, Lead Physiotherapist for the Samson Centre for MS. Our new YouTube channel was created to enable members to do some gentle exercises at home during the covid-19 pandemic.

The exercises are just as applicable for anyone looking for stretches and posture xercises for people with limited mobility. Please subscribe to ensure you’re updated with all the latest videos from us.

Please click the above Image to see the full document

The Samson Centre for MS – how we will survive the Covid-19 pandemic to prosper beyond it

Statement by the trustees, May 2020

What we do – our role

Thank you.

One of our members, Catherine has done her own ’round and round the garden’ challenge and walked round her garden 26 times

She raised a brilliant £576 for the Centre in the process!

The photo shows Catherine on the final lap of her garden. Thank you so much Catherine for what you have done. So helpful to us at this time.

We’ve made a particular effort to clarify and simplify all the Fundraising and Donation options available for direct donations and would particularly like to highlight three:
Easyfundraising, Text Giving and Lottery Ticket Sales.

We are all doing more online shopping and could easily sign up and download the Easyfundraising App and encourage our family and friends to do the same. Supporting the Centre at no cost to ourselves.

Why don’t you put your National Lottery money to better use! We could all buy or post/share a link to the Samson Unity Lottery page and increase sales with a chance of winning £25,000!

We all know someone who owns a phone so memorise those numbers. Textgiving is the simplest and quickest way to donate. To donate £X just text “SAMSON” to See Options

Please help us to continue to provide practical and emotional support for people living with Multiple Sclerosis in Surrey and surrounding areas. To find out more about us please watch our video.
Many thanks.

The incredible John Hambly and his lovely family are fundraising again for us by running/pedalling 2.6 times the 26 mile marathon to make 70 miles to cover in a week. They are definitely going to exceed that total. Do please make a donation if you can to their JustGiving page as they finish their challenge on Sunday 3 May and all monies raised come to the Centre.

Go Hamblys!!

Several of you will have seen the email that came out on 24 March from Robin, our Chairman.

Our Trustees have some very difficult decisions to take regarding finances and how we operate as a Centre when we are in a position to re-open. The government will be able to provide some support towards staff salaries, however the Centre has a considerable amount of ongoing monthly expenditure that we will need to meet from our own cash resources.

While we are shut, we are unable to run any fundraising events and this will create a big hole in our finances. The Centre has always been about self help. It was set up for people with MS by people with MS. If you know anyone who is able to provide a donation to the Centre during these very challenging times, please email
Many thanks for your continued support and understanding. We can get through this if we all stick together.

A very proud moment for John Hambly, our Vice-Chairman when he received a Sport Gives Back award at the Royal Institution in London on 5 March. A very special evening with some well known faces from the sporting world in evidence.

The 2nd photo shows John with his Actonian Rugby Club friends who nominated John for this award. The Actonians have raised a huge amount of money for the Samson Centre for MS over the years and remain huge supporters of John and all that he has done for the Samson Centre for MS.

Click to See Full Event Brochure.

Click Image to watch a short Video.

So our very own John Hambly is going to receive an award next week at the Sports Gives Back award ceremony in London.

John was a committed rugby player and Captain of the Actonians team before his diagnosis of MS. The Actonians have raised hundreds of thousands for the Samson Centre over the past 17 years and still remain supportive of John and his tireless fundraising.

An amazing example of sport giving something back to John and the Samson Centre and an award so well deserved for our own Cornishman, John Hambly.

Click Image to View a short Video about John and the Actonians 

Click to Enlarge Image.

A big thank you to Guildford Lions for raising a really helpful £1500 for the Centre from the Hatchlands Run that they organise every year.

We were lucky enough to be their chosen charity for the Hatchlands Run in 2019 and this resulted in a lovely donation today. Many thanks to everyone at the Guildford Lions for your support.