Hi. My name is Mackenzie. I'm fundraising for ADHD UK, because it's an amazing resource that I found really, comforting and useful when I was diagnosed earlier this year. They offer information that is, vetted and and well researched. And the fact that the people working for ADHD UK also have ADHD is is it just makes you feel a little more understood and a little more willing to be to be vulnerable and open because you know that they you know, within within the realm of of available symptoms, They they have an idea what you're what you're going through, what you're talking about. I I like doing research, and I'm happy to find my own information. This.

Makes it a little easier to feel understood that it's already been consolidated and it's available. And it's it's also easier to metabolize when you're completely overwhelmed and to share with other people to make sure that we all we all wanna feel understood. And it's easy to be frustrated if people in your life don't understand, particularly if, like myself, you're diagnosed quite late. And a lot of things that the people closest to you have associated with just, you know, your quirks are related to the related to symptoms. It's easier to share with them and have them understand it when you can present something that isn't, you know, a dense academic text, let's say. I think also that their funding research is incredibly important because.

Part of part of the issue with with finding good and reliable information is that there's quite a lot that's still not known. The correlation of ADHD with other conditions, you know, the comorbidities are very common and some of which have have only recently been assessed. I mean, I know up until very recently, ASD and ADHD were not able to be considered comorbid, and now it's apparently incredibly common. I know that some of the the difficulties in in having an assessment and getting effective treatment that women in particular have had are in large part down to the assumptions made that primarily are associated with hyperactive and combined presentations. So I think this could be very, very helpful to a lot of people, both the.

Availability of information and the ability to feel like you're doing something to improve the situation for other people, whether that's contributing to their online surveys to contribute to research on on available resources and jobs and university and funding and things with the like or to be able to kind of offer peer support through the online forums they provide and to ask your own questions. So far, my fundraising has been primarily car based. I had a wonderful little smart car that just was the little engine that could and went on from well, for quite a few years. Let's put it that way. She'd had a number of breakdowns over the last couple of years and a number of break ins in just the last year. And I found a great website that was.

Picking up cars for donations, and I was able to have my car sold at auction and the proceeds donated to ADHD UK. Straightforward. No cost for me, and it was just picked up at my house. So to to counter that and do something slightly more labor intensive, I'm training for a half marathon now where I'll also be fundraising for ADHD UK. I it's a wonderful opportunity, and it's it's really a great charity to support.