Succeeding for Sandra

01/11/2026

Now Halloween is out the way we can all start looking forward to Christmas 🎄….

What better way to count down than with a huge advent calendar from hotel Chocolat 🍫🎄

See details below on how to enter 🎅🎄

28/10/2026

Fancy winning a little luxury this Christmas? 🧡

🎄🍫 WIN A HOTEL CHOCOLAT GRAND ADVENT CALENDAR 🍫🎄

I’m raffling off this gorgeous Hotel Chocolat Grand Advent Calendar to raise money for Succeeding for Sandra, supporting Muscular Dystrophy UK, as part of my journey to the 2027 TCS London Marathon🏃‍♀️🧡💙

It’s HUGE and a luxury treat for someone as it retails at £80!!

I’m so proud to have already reached my required fundraising target for London, but I’ve decided to push myself further and increase my goal to £7,500 to help make an even bigger difference to a charity that means so much to my family

Every ticket purchased will help me get closer to that target, all in memory of my lovely mum, Sandra, and for Lana … and everyone affected by Muscular Dystrophy 🧡

🎟️ Tickets are just £2 each and payment needs to be bank payment to the following account:

Nikita Ellithorn

37338676
01-05-14

Please put reference as your name so I can keep track

Please note no actual tickets will be given, you will be added to a spreadsheet X how many you buy.. if you pay £10 you’ll be added 5 times, pay £2 you’ll be added once etc… names will be printed and put into a hat and Rowan will pick the lucky winner 👏🏼 (date of draw to be decided)

Once winner has been drawn all proceeds will then be donated to my London Marathon fundraising page 👏🏼

A huge thank you to everyone who continues to support Succeeding for Sandra

Every ticket and share really does help🧡💙

23/10/2026

🧡 FACT FRIDAY

LOOK BEYOND WHAT YOU SEE 🧡

Not all muscle weakness is visible

Muscular Dystrophy can affect everyday activities in ways that other people might not realise

Things that seem simple to one person can take much more effort for someone affected by the condition

That’s why awareness matters

Understanding, patience and compassion can make a real difference 🧡

At Succeeding for Sandra, we’re proud to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy UK in memory of our lovely mum, Sandra, and for our sister Alannah and everyone affected by Muscular Dystrophy

🧡 More awareness

More understanding

A bigger impact

Please share this post to help spread awareness🧡

09/10/2026

🧡 HELP MY LONDON MARATHON FUNDRAISING PAGE WIN £2,000 🧡

JustGiving are running an incentive for London Marathon 2027 fundraising pages throughout October 👀

Every separate donation made to my fundraising page counts as an entry into their £2,000 draw … so the more donations the page receives, the more chances we have🤞

So even if you can only donate £2, it genuinely helps … not only does it go towards my fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy UK it also gives my page another entry into the draw 🧡

Imagine if all the little £2 donations actually helped us bag an extra £2,000 for MDUK 😱🤞

Every donation means so much 🧡

Donate here:

Help Nikita Ellithorn raise money to support Muscular Dystrophy UK

09/10/2026

🧡 FACT FRIDAY! 🧡

💡 Did you know?

There are over 60 different types of Muscular Dystrophy and related neuromuscular conditions

One of these is Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD), the condition our mum had and also Alannah lives with 🧡

FSHD is a genetic condition that causes progressive muscle weakness, particularly affecting the face, shoulders and upper arms. It can also affect the legs and other muscles

One thing people might not realise is that FSHD affects everyone differently.
Some people experience relatively mild symptoms, while others face significant challenges with mobility and everyday activities

And because not all disabilities are visible, you can’t always tell what someone is going through just by looking at them

🧡 This is why we do what we do at Succeeding for Sandra

We’re not just raising money for Muscular Dystrophy UK
We’re raising awareness for all types of MD, supporting families like ours and keeping our lovely mum Sandra’s memory alive 🥰

✨ A little awareness can make a big difference

06/10/2026

The bingo might be over… but Succeeding for Sandra certainly isn’t 🧡

After the madness of the last few months, we’ve finally had a little chance to come back down to earth after what was an AMAZING night

£6,377.50 raised from one night still feels absolutely incredible 🥹

We’ve had lots of new people follow our page recently, so we thought now was a good time to remind everyone what Succeeding for Sandra is all about

We set up Succeeding for Sandra in memory of our beautiful Mum, Sandra, and to raise money and awareness for Muscular Dystrophy UK, while also supporting our sister Alannah who lives with FSHD

Fundraising gives us a way to keep Mum’s memory alive, while hopefully making a difference to families affected by Muscular Dystrophy

Our family fund also holds back 20% of all we raise (at MDUK) and can be used for supporting Alannah’s welfare needs such as funding a wheelchair 🧡

So… what’s next?

🏃‍♀️ Marathon training is underway for 2027
🧡 More fundraising (although maybe we’ll recover from the bingo first 😂)
💡 New event ideas are already being thrown around
📸 And we’ll be sharing more about our family, FSHD, our fundraising journey and everything we’ve achieved together so far

Thank you for sticking around, supporting us and helping us keep Mum’s memory going

We’re definitely not finished yet… 🧡

Succeeding for Sandra ###

30/09/2026

🧡 WHAT DID YOU WIN?! 🧡

We had SO many prizes at our Succeeding for Sandra Charity Bingo Night that we’d love to see where they all ended up 🙌

Whether you won on the raffle and / or instant win envelopes…

👇 Tag yourself (or your lucky friend) in the comments and tell us what you won (along with a pic of your prizes if you have them)

Even better, if you’ve already used your prize, drop us a photo 📸🧡

We’d also love to know if anyone managed to go home with more than one prize 👀😂

A huge thank you again to every single person and business who donated a prize … there were honestly far too many to count, and they helped us raise an incredible £6,377.50 for Muscular Dystrophy UK through Succeeding for Sandra 🧡

Right then… what did you win?! 👇👇👇

27/09/2026

Where do we even start after last night?!

There has been a MASSIVE amount of work behind the scenes to make this night happen

Hours and hours spent contacting businesses for raffle prizes, collecting them, promoting the event constantly on Facebook and Instagram, chasing ticket sales, working out how on earth we were going to run such a huge raffle 😂 and all the little things that nobody really sees (some had the pleasure of listening to me stressing about it for weeks🙈)

There were a few hiccups along the way too… including us realising at 1am on the morning of the event that when bingo books are advertised as “750 books”, it apparently does NOT mean you have 750 bingo books 😭😭😂 You live and learn but we pulled it out the bag 🙌🏼

Every single bit of hard work was worth it,

A HUGE thank you has to go to Glynn, our compere…

We have always tried to run our events ourselves in the past, and I can honestly say Glynn absolutely MADE the night. He kept everything flowing and took so much pressure off us.

The feedback we have had about him has been incredible and we couldn’t have asked for anyone better 🙌🏼

To Lydia Rose .. what a talent 🧡 So young and absolutely amazing already
Thank you for performing for us and being part of such a special night

Phil Ellis .. who was absolutely brilliant and brought something so special (and hilarious 😂) to the night.
He really did help make it one we’ll remember for a very long time

To Belle & Co. Events who sponsored our balloon decor, thank you so much for making the room look absolutely beautiful and also for coming along on the night to support even further … a lovely lady who’s business deserves to do well 🧡

And to Penningtons for feeding over 200 people and helping us pull off such a huge night …thank you

Then there is EVERYONE else who made this possible…

Every business and individual who donated a raffle prize🙌🏼
Every one of our amazing sponsors 👏🏼
Every person who shared our posts and event🥰
Every person who tagged their friends or helped us spread the word👏🏼🥰
And most importantly, every single person who bought a ticket and came along

Getting that room full was a huge task in itself 😂 so every share genuinely mattered and didn’t go unnoticed

So many people have helped and I could go on forever!!

When people say well done to me I honestly can’t take all the credit … Chris Scott deserves a special shout out, hasn’t stopped since the start and honestly if your happy with your raffle prize Its highly likely Chris sorted it! I don’t have one photo of him / us from the night but you know you played a huge part in making the night a success.

There was also a very special reason we chose this particular week to hold the event

This week marks 9 years since we lost our mum, Sandra. She also should have celebrated her 60th birthday this year back in June.

Fundraising has always been about raising money and awareness for Muscular Dystrophy UK and supporting those living with Muscular Dystrophy, including Alannah, who lives with FSHD.

But for us, it’s also about keeping Mum’s name and memory alive and turning what will always be a difficult time of year into something positive…

And on that note I’m so pleased to announce the total raised from the charity bingo night is

🧡 £6,377.50!!! 🧡

I just wish I could see Mum’s reaction to that number…

I still remember how absolutely buzzing she was years ago when I raised £100 for MacMillan🥰

So I can only imagine what she’d have made of this

We have had so many lovely messages and such amazing feedback about the night, and after all the stress, late nights, planning and wondering whether we’d actually pull it off… we did👏🏼

And it was better than we could ever have hoped

We’ve smashed our fundraising targets for London Marathon (but we all know I won’t stop there 🤣🙈)

I will post some videos tomorrow / this week from the night 🙌🏼

From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU

To every single person who played even the smallest part in making the night what it was we couldn’t have done it without you

£6,377.50!!! 🧡😭🙌🏼

For Mum
For Alannah
For everyone affected by Muscular Dystrophy

Succeeding for Sandra 🧡