Today, I thought I'd give the nice people at PhotoPLOD a bit of a plug. Don't worry; 'PLOD' is not a reference to a police constable. In fact PhotoPLOD is a support event for the charity organisation Action Medical Research that raises money for medical research specialising in childhood maladies.

[IMG]http://dpnow.com/files/blog/P3082209.jpg[/IMG]

[I]PhotoPLOD had a booth at the recent Focus on Imaging show at the Birmingham NEC[/I]

We have a tenuous link to all this as our younger daughter, Lara (11), who appears frequently on this site as an impromptu model, has a form of arthritis that affects a surprisingly large number of kids. Luckily, through treatment using a dilute form of the anti-cancer drug, methotrexate, her symptoms were treated successfully, although several months after coming off the treatment she is currently experiencing a probable relapse and will likely go back on to the medication.

It's quite possible that with funding from organisations like PhotoPLOD, the effectiveness of methotrexate was identified for Lara's form of childhood arthritis. Incidentally, the prognosis is positive and Lara has a high probability of growing out of the condition.

So what is PhotoPLOD? It's an organised annual 40 mile trek across the South Downs Way between Winchester and Eastbourne by sponsored teams. To be honest, I'm not precisely sure about the 'Photo' element to PhotoPLOD, but their website has lots of pictures from last year's event.

If you are interested in taking part in this year's PhotoPLOD, which takes place on the 4th June, or would be interested in sponsoring the event, by all means have a look at their website here:

[URL]http://www.action.org.uk/get_involved/photoplod[/URL]