Researchers across the country have received a welcome boost in the battle against motor neurone disease.
The legacy of AFL icon and former Australian of the Year Neale Daniher — who died in May after living with the debilitating condition for 13 years — will continue to live on following a record-breaking funding round from Fight MND, the organisation he co-founded in 2014.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Record funding drives MND research breakthrough hopes
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In Sydney, a research team will examine the connection between disturbed sleep and the onset of MND.
The research is among 69 projects sharing more than $30 million in grants, made possible by the record funds raised following Daniher’s death.
Governor-General Sam Mostyn met with Associate Professor Emma Devenney, whose grant will research whether disturbed sleep is an early sign of MND.
“We’re really looking to see how can we identify this disease before people develop symptoms that are irreversible,” Devenney said.
Mostyn, herself a Big Freeze slider, has high hopes after the latest funding boost.
“I think it’s in Neale’s memory that one day we’ll be able to say that the money raised by good people all around the country, great communities, will find that cure,” she said.
In Brisbane, Daniher’s widow Jan met with Associate Professor Shyuan Ngo, who will investigate signals cells use to communicate.
“We’re trying to figure out whether or not we can pick out the signals that are causing MND, so that we can target those signals,” Ngo said.
Former Melbourne Demons captain Nathan Jones, who was coached by Daniher, joined Professor Peter Williams at the Centre for Eye Research in East Melbourne, where new eye disease drugs will be tested for their efficacy in dealing with MND.
“We’ve been developing drugs for glaucoma to stop optic nerve degeneration, and the drugs that we’re developing here should be effective in MND as well,” Williams said.
“This could be a path forward, which is so exciting,” added Jones.
Jan knows her husband’s former protege wouldn’t be the only one elated at the latest developments.
“I think he’d be up there with a big smile on his face, but he’d be watching every step of the way, don’t worry about that,” she said.
