FightMND is inviting the Yarra Valley community members to join its major drive.
In 2013, former AFL player and coach Neale Daniher AO was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND), and Neale’s wife Jan Daniher said her family didn’t believe it at first.
“Life was really good. We were living in WA and we both thought we were really healthy at the time,” she said.
“We’re absolutely devastated when we got the final diagnosis.”
MND has affected Mr Daniher severely ever since.
Now, he can’t speak and uses eye gaze to communicate.
The diagnosis of MND has also had a massive impact on the Daniher family.
“We both had jobs in elite sport, and we loved working in that industry, and it meant that Neale and I quit our roles, moved back to Melbourne,” Ms Daniher said.
“Life was very uncertain because we thought he was going to live for around 27 months, and we were sort of planning along those lines.
“We had two sons living in Perth and two daughters in Melbourne. One son came back with us to Melbourne, and then Rebecca, who was an accountant at the time, ended up changing her career and working for FightMND.”
Mr Daniher found the MND was largely overlooked and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council allocated just 0.6 per cent of its funding to MND research.
He was determined to make a change and founded FightMND with Dr Ian Davis, a haematologist diagnosed with MND at just 33, and Pat Cunningham, whose wife was struggling with the disease, in November 2014.
That’s how FightMND was born, and later on, it launched three different projects, Daniher’s Drive, Challenge 27 and Big Freeze, to raise awareness of MND, support vital and urgent MND research and care initiatives to improve the lives of those living with MND.
Since kicking off in 2015, Daniher’s Drive alone has raised over $14 million to fuel the fight against MND.
“We had a lot of fun getting the very first one organised, and it’s just been an amazing event because of the people we get to meet and the people that come on the drive,” Ms Daniher said.
“The support of everyone around Australia has been incredible, and we really appreciate that.”
This year, Daniher’s Drive will take place for four days, departing from Heidelberg Golf Club on Thursday 9 October and wrapping up at RACV Torquay Resort on Sunday 12 October.
The drive will visit the Yarra Valley on the first and second days, stopping by Four Pillars Gin Distillery, Warburton Bowls Club and Helen’s Hill Estate.
Ms Daniher said she is looking forward to coming to the Yarra Valley and meeting locals.
“We’re looking forward to coming up your way, and we’re dropping in at a number of places in your neck of the woods,” she said.
“We’re hoping to meet as many as we can of the local community.”
Find out more about the Daniher’s Drive at the FightMND website, fightmnd.org.au/whats-on/danihers-drive
Prior to the Danihers Drive, there was another fundraiser held in a local golf club to support FightMND.
Graeme Temperly, who lost his mate to MND, hosted the Challenge 27 at the Eastern Golf Club on 18 September.
It was the second time Mr Temperly organised the event at the local golf club.
“27 is, unfortunately, the number of months of life expectancy after being diagnosed with MND,” he said.
“We’ve got a 27-hole championship-level golf course out of Eastern Golf Club in Yering, and I thought if we can get approval to play from hole one right through to 27, that has a perfect synergy with the 27 number and the FightMND challenge.”
The first Challenge 27 at Eastern Golf Club raised about $1400 last year.
This year, the event went bigger and ended up raising over $3400, which was a lot more than the original target amount of $2700.
The donation was made through the registration fee of $27 per player, as well as sponsorships.
All proceeds throughout the fundraiser went towards FightMND directly.
The event organiser said there were no prizes at all.
“What I said to the players was that all of that money that would have been spent to buy those prizes, I added into a special donation to the fund,” Mr Temperly said.
“(Eastern Golf Club) allowed me to play 27 holes, which is not normal. Normally, it’s just 18 or nine. The actual third nine holes we played were closed for normal weekly maintenance, but they allowed us to play.
“They also organised the scoring, and then there was the normal catering.”
Mr Temperly hopes to host this annually on Thursday of AFL preliminary final week.
