Communications News: Transferable power

The Motor Neurone Disease Association has sent a parody of the front cover of last week's Times newspaper 'Power 100' supplement to every business leader profiled in the original. The 'Powerless 100' contains 100 faces of people who have died or are dying from Motor Neurone Disease. They represent the 5,000 people living with the disease at any one time in the UK and include Professor Stephen Hawking and the actor David Niven, who died in 1983 of the progressive neuromuscular Lou Gehrig's disease. The charity enclosed a letter urging the business leaders to support the people helped by the association. It asks recipients to use their influence to secure corporate 'charity of the year' accounts and in-kind donations from colleagues to the charity. Richard Green, the charity's director of communications, said: "These people have to fight for the care, treatment, support, equipment, and benefits they desperately need."