Imagine you are married to a loving husband, mother to 3 beautiful girls and at age 40 you are diagnosed with breast cancer.
You undergo treatment and thankfully it works and eventually you are given the 5 year all clear! Happy Days!
That following year age 46 you are diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. MND – a disease without a cure.
But this is not an imaginary story, for Cath Baker this is reality.
Cath and I are the same age. I tear up whenever I think of Cath and her family (Grant her hubby and I started our first jobs together on the same day at the LBS Bank as fresh faced 16 year olds!). I’m not sure I will ever know anyone as incredibly strong, determined, ‘make hay while the sun shines’ kind of person who is an inspiration to so many.
I for one am a better person for knowing Cath because it has made me so very grateful for the simple things in life that we so often take for granted and that MND robs from those suffering from this disease.
So let’s look at some facts –
- Each day in Australia 2 people will be diagnosed and 2 people will die from MND.
- MND is a fatal, rapidly progressing disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, it attacks the nerves that control movement, so muscles no longer work.
- MND can leave people locked in a failing body, unable to move, talk, swallow and eventually breathe.
- There is NO cure or effective treatment
These facts are incredibly hard to read and I would be surprised if you don’t feel a heaviness in your chest or have a tear in your eye knowing how this disease impacts those who are suffering from MND.
But as hubby Grant says, ‘You can visit pity street, but you can’t stay there’. Cath writes her own blog to help others living with MND and is an avid MND campaigner, she is definitely fighting the good fight!
For Cath and others suffering from MND we NEED TO FIND A CURE! The only way to do this is through more research - very expensive research!
Here in Tassie a group of us came together last year to try and raise some money, we all had a connection to MND through Cath, another had lost a family member to MND and Angie Cunningham, who sadly lost her battle on October 5th, 3 days before our Gala Ball. MND sufferer Neale Daniher and his wife Jan were our special guests and without his determination and tenacity many of us wouldn’t even know about MND!
We also organised our very own Big Freeze, bringing a giant swimming pool into one of the main streets in the City centre and sent willing participants down the slide into gallons of icy water, which raised around $20,000. The Gala Ball raised just over $80,000 giving us a grand total raised - $100,277.00!
But there’s still NO CURE! So we are doing it all again on the 7th October and we want to smash last year’s total out of the water and to do that we need your help, MND sufferers need our help! Even if you can only spare $1, help us raise funds to continue to fund research so that your children and your children’s children do not have to face MND – the disease without a cure!
Please click on the link below and make a pledge, however big or small, give hope where it seems hopeless!
Cath now only drinks French champagne, she says she doesn’t have enough time to bother with the cheap stuff, so next time you have a champagne make it French and raise your glass to a woman who shows so much grace in the face of adversity and who makes us strive to be better people.
Thankyou Cath Baker for being one hell of a woman!
Please help us Fight MND!
https://give.everydayhero.com/au/tassie-freezing-for-mnd-2017
THANKYOU from the Tassie Freezing for MND Committee
Written by Lindi McMahon
on Behalf of the Tassie Freezing for MND Committee.