Andrew Thompson is an experienced commercial insurance broker and Regional Director at Alan Boswell Group. He founded Andrew Thompson & Associates in 2010 and continues to lead the Group’s Ipswich operation.
Andrew’s reason for supporting the MND Foundation starts with his father. From a very early age, his dad brought him up to support good people doing great things. Andrew believes the Foundation represents exactly that.
His father was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2007. At the time, the family believed his form of MND was particularly aggressive, and they lost him around two years later.
Andrew began fundraising for different charities in 2009, starting with the Humber Bridge Half Marathon. The challenge felt especially meaningful because he had grown up nearby and it took place over the weekend of his mother’s 70th birthday.
His father was still well enough to ask whether Murali Muralitharan was playing for Sri Lanka in a one-day international that day. It is a treasured memory that will always make Andrew smile, not least because it was quite a name to say.
Andrew continued to do what he could, but the experience of his friend Steve Redgwell made him feel he had to step up. Steve is the founder of the MND Foundation and is himself living with MND. Andrew and Steve had been competitors in the insurance market during the 2000s before becoming friends “off the pitch”. Steve’s courage and example continue to inspire Andrew to do more.
More recently, Andrew’s determination has been strengthened by the experiences of the late Suffolk businessman Adam Reason, who was diagnosed with MND in 2024, and insurance professional Jonny Breitsprecher, who is living with the disease. Jonny’s sister-in-law, Sarah Breitsprecher, is also part of the MND Foundation team as a Support Volunteer.
As Sir Kevin Sinfield has said, there is a great swell of people building an amazing MND community. Andrew is proud to be part of it and determined to contribute as much as he can.
“My dad, Adam, Jonny and Steve all deserve for me to do as much as I can.”