Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Lou Gehrig’s disease, especially in the USA.

Summary of facts from Motor Neurone Disease Australia:

  • MND is a rapidly progressive, terminal neurological disease
  • There is no known cure and no effective treatment for MND
  • Each day in Australia two people die from MND
  • Each day in Australia two people are diagnosed with MND
  • People with MND progressively lose the use of their limbs and ability to speak, swallow and breathe, whilst their mind and senses usually remain intact
  • Average life expectancy is 27 months
  • An estimated 1,500 people have MND in Australia and thousands more families and carers live daily with the effects of MND

Some famous people who are living with or have died from MND include:

  • Mathematician, physicist and author Professor Stephen Hawking
  • Actor David Niven
  • Painter Pro Hart
  • Balmain rugby league player Scott Gale
  • Musician Ron Edgeworth
  • Cartoonist James Kemsley
  • Actor Richard Morgan
  • Lord Leonard Cheshire, VC
  • Jazz composer and bassist, Charles Mingus
  • Australian athletics coach Percy Cerutty
  • Mao Tse Tung Revolutionary leader of China
  • Morrie Schwartz American Professor of Sociology, media personality and author, who was the subject of the international best-selling book, “Tuesdays with Morrie”

More information here: http://www.mndaust.asn.au