Neale Daniher has one very important message – to fight Motor Neurone Disease (MND) it takes people.
He and his brothers, Terry, Anthony, and Chris hail from Ungarie and all played football together at the Essendon Football Club. Between them, they played a combined 752 VFL/AFL games.
Neale has been fighting what he calls ‘The Beast’ for nearly a decade – and he dreams of a world that is free of MND. That is why he founded FightMND in 2014 – to be a voice for all Australians who have to take on ‘The Beast’.
Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is the name given to a group of diseases in which the nerve cells (neurones) controlling the muscles that enable us to move around, speak, swallow and breathe fail to work normally and eventually die. With no nerves to activate them the muscles gradually weaken and waste. There is currently no truly effective treatment and no known cure.
On Monday, 13 June the “Big-Freeze at the G” charity event was able to be held for the first time since 2019. This event is an important part of the FightMND story – The theme for ‘Big Freeze 8’ was ‘It’s time to Beanie On, Play On’.
Tennis champ Ash Barty, former Carlton player Eddie Betts and comedian Hamish Blake all donned crazy costumes and were plunged into a freezing water in support of the cause. Rhonda Burchmore, Terry Daniher, Andy Maher, David Neitz, Jakara Anthony, Bec Maddern and Justin Langer also took part in the celebrity slide, which featured at the annual clash between Collingwood and Melbourne Football Clubs.
Beanies are also an integral part of raising awareness of MND – by purchasing a beanie – people from across Australia join a community, united and determined to fight back against ‘The Beast; and help find a cure.
Each day, two Australians will be diagnosed with MND and two people will die. The average age of onset is 50.
The average life expectancy following an MND diagnosis is 27 months – Neale has been fighting ‘The Beast’ for almost 10 years.
“MND is a Beast,” www.fightmnd.org.au says. “It is an insidious disease without any effective treatment or a cure. But over the past eight years, FightMND has been able to make real change. With your support, we have invested over $55.9M in research that is beginning to show real promise. We don’t know when the big breakthrough will come, but when it does, every single person who buys a beanie or donates to FightMND can know that they played a part in making it happen.”
Founded in 2014, FightMND was established with the purpose of finding effective treatments and ultimately a cure for Motor Neurone Disease.
“What FightMND has done since 2014 is be the voice, and the guiding star for Australians who want to fight ‘The Beast’. The horrible and debilitating disease gradually takes away the patient’s use of their arms and legs, their ability to eat and swallow, their speech and ultimately their ability to breathe…all in an average timeframe of just 27 months,” www.fightmnd.org.au explained.
To buy a beanie, make a donation or learn more about MND, visit fightmnd.org.au