We hope he is looking down on us smiling

Simon Adams, who died last October of the disease, was named PayPal fundraiser of the year at internet fundraising site JustGiving.com’s awards.

After learning he was suffering from the fatal disease shortly before his 46th birthday, the former Southam rugby player and landlord set out to raise £1 million to help find a cure. His appeal has so far raised more than £340,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

At the ceremony at Shoreditch town hall on March 1, Mr Adams’ widow Maxine accepted the prize on his behalf.

She said: “We were very proud to receive this award and would like to thank all our family and friends, without whom we could never have raised so much money and awareness.”

Mr Adams’s father David said: “I have never seen such raw emotion as when his name was announced. We couldn’t believe it. He didn’t know he had been nominated. We hope he’s looking down, smiling.”

With an annual target of £12 million for the whole charity, the Motor Neurone Disease Association’s fundraising director Douglas Graham has spoken of ‘the Simon Adams effect’.

Sarah Hampton, the charity’s South West regional fundraiser, remembers her first conversation with Mr Adams.

She said: “He rang me up and said ‘I have just been diagnosed and I would like to raise £1 million. Can you help?’ He was that sort of person. He didn’t tackle life in a half-hearted manner.”

If Mrs Hampton was taken aback by his ambition, she was unprepared for the support Mr Adams was able to draw on.

She said: “I had never worked with anybody who had literally hundreds of friends. He was such an inspiration, an absolutely amazing person.”

Events continue, with Mr Adams’ three rugby clubs of Southam, Plymouth Albion and Windsor due to play a tournament on Saturday April 28, and 100 runners each aiming to raise £200 in this year’s Plymouth Half Marathon on June 3. Southam Rugby Club will hold its Party on the Pitch on July 21 and Stockton Cricket and Football Club will host a cricket tournament on the August bank holiday weekend.

Mrs Hampton believes reaching £1 million is possible. She added: “I still get emails from people who say they would like to help.”