A KIND-hearted fund-raiser has managed to get Tenbury people turning to their recipe books to raise money and awareness of a rare illness.

Kirsty Smith has joined a campaign to raise £1 million after her father was diagnosed with multiple system atrophy. When Brian Smith, aged 53, suffered a serious injury at work and lost a finger his health started to go downhill.

“At first it was thought that he was suffering from a form of traumatic stress,” said his wife of 27 years Tina, 47.

“Things got worse and eventually after tests, Brian was diagnosed with Parkinson’s – but he continued to get worse.”

More medical tests revealed that the former carpenter and joiner from Tenbury was in fact suffering from multiple system atrophy (MSA).

Tina said: “It is commonly known as Parkinson’s plus and in the two years since he was diagnosed, Brian has got much worse. He is now very unwell and fully disabled.”

Now their daughter Kirsty, who will be going to Worcester University later in the year, is joining the campaign to help raise more than £1 million for research into the disease. She has already got friends and family baking cakes which were sold outside the Regal cinema on Saturday. But this is just a start and she is running rounders competitions with the help of Tenbury High School, where she is a former pupil.