An island charity that supports those with a rare neurodegenerative disorder raised £28,000 at its summer ball.

Almost 200 guests were hosted by Manx MSA Trust at the event in the Best Western Palace Hotel and Casino in Douglas.

They were entertained by singer Adam Parker Brown and had the chance to bid on auction prizes.

Director Niall Carey said ’We are delighted that our summer ball has raised a superb amount again, for the fourth year running.

’All of the funds raised will go towards our three key objectives. We have to thank all of our guests and sponsors who helped ensure the event was so successful.’

The charity was founded in 2016 by Chris Blake who was diagnosed with multiple system atrophy (MSA) at the age of 39.

MSA affects brain function, movement, balance and blood pressure. It has no current cure and is also life limiting.

The key objectives for the charity are to support island patients and their families, highlight the illness in the local medical community and help research in finding a method of early diagnosis for patients through a simple blood test.

Manx MSA Trust recently funded successful scientific research into finding ’biomarkers’ to assist early diagnosis for MSA.

Three patients from the Isle of Man were also involved in initial studies.

The charity said that challenges facing early diagnosis of any rare condition include ’the difficulty in obtaining patients blood samples, whilst also trying to identify biomarkers/key characteristics of the disease within the samples’.

To help research on the disease, the Manx MSA Trust created a collaboration including Jurby Wellness, University College London, Liverpool Biobank and biotech companies Cynapse DX & Protein Technologies.

Together, they carried out a year-long study testing the blood of MSA patients for ’abnormal proteins’, using a proprietary blood test.

The group employed scientists, obtained ethical approval, and developed a new test method and reagents for diagnosing biomarkers for MSA. This initial study consisted of eight MSA patients, three of which were from the island.

A spokesman said: ’We are delighted to announce this stage of the research has successfully identified MSA biomarkers from a blood test.

’These findings bring us another step closer to understanding this complex disease and may one day provide an early diagnosis to patients through a simple blood test.’