MULTIPLE sclerosis has made Ian Williams largely dependent on a wheelchair - but his daredevil fundraising ideas have helped him escape its confines and put him in the running for a national award.

The 36-year-old, from Sebastopol, Pontypool, last year organised a team, including fellow MS patients, that took part in a sponsored abseil and zip slide from Newport's Transporter Bridge.

The effort raised £5,000, which has helped fund a dedicated MS occupational therapy post, based at County Hospital, Griffithstown, providing vital care and support for scores of patients.

An an active MS campaigner since he fought a successful battle in 2004 for the right to receive chemotherapy treatment to try to slow the progress of the disease, Mr Williams has now made a shortlist of three for the Multiple Sclerosis Society's fundraiser of the year award, and will attend a celebrity-hosted gala ceremony in London on May 1.

"I am over the moon to have made the final and I am very excited about it," he said.

"The abseil and the zip slide were a chance to do something that challenged me and others, but most important, to raise money for a project that is providing very practical benefits for people with MS in Gwent.

Whether or not he scoops the award, Mr Williams will have to get back quickly to Wales, for another fundraising challenge awaits.

He is organising a parachute jump involving more than 40 people, scheduled to take place over the weekend of May 2-3, with the sky diving centre at Swansea Airport as the base. The event will coincide with the end of MS Awareness Week, Mr Williams, who lives with wife Sharon and children Martin and Adam, is no stranger to jumping out of aeroplanes, having completed an assisted parachute jump from 10,000 feet three years ago, an effort that raised more than £1,000 for the MS Society.