Neale is a fighter and his legacy will continue

A little over a decade ago, motor neurone disease (MND) was the insidious condition it is today – but with one crucial difference, it was a disease few Australians knew much about, let alone contemplated lending their support to fighting.
 
That is – until 2013, when AFL great, Neale Daniher, received his devastating diagnosis.
 
Since then, his determination has been to fight for his life and engage the help of his fellow Australians to do the same for everyone who battles this cruel disease.
 
MND is a progressive and fatal neurological condition.
 
There is no known cure and limited treatment options. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is just 27 months.
 
Two Australians are diagnosed with MND every day. Approximately 2,700 Australians are living with it and two people will die from it every day.
 
Neale was the 2025 Australian of the Year because of his extraordinary work raising awareness of MND, advocating for those affected, and raising funds for research and therapy through his organisation, FightMND.
 
When he was diagnosed with MND, Neale refused to quietly retreat and give in to his fate.

He decided to fight the disease, and he used the same qualities he had brought to football to galvanise the community to join him.
Together with Pat Cunningham and the late Dr Ian Davis OAM, in 2014 he co-founded a small organisation, FightMND, and since then has helped build it into one of the largest independent funders of MND research.
 
To date, FightMND has invested an astonishing $117 million in care and cure initiatives for those with MND.
 
And despite his ongoing battle with MND, Neale remains the face and voice of the organisation.
 
Not only has Neale defied the odds to survive MND for longer than anyone could have predicted, he has changed the lives of other Australians diagnosed with the disease through his advocacy that no one diagnosed should have to face MND alone.
 
The annual Big Freeze event at the MCG, embodies Neale’s ethos of turning hardship into a cause for celebration and hope.
 
Like Neale, the Albanese Government believes people facing MND and other rare, deadly diseases deserve the greatest possible support.
 
That’s why our Government is providing $40.1 million to FightMND for a special project which will be a forever tribute to Neale’s legacy.
 
These funds will be used to establish the Neale Daniher National MND Clinical Network - to lift motor neurone disease research to a new level.
 
The network will accelerate research into MND by establishing Australia as a core destination for global MND clinical trials, progressing national data infrastructure to underpin research, identifying new clinical care pathways, and building the pipeline of up-and-coming researchers through more fellowships.
 
Clinical trials are critical to progressing research, giving access to new treatments and providing hope.
 
Assisted by government investment, FightMND has so far funded 17 clinical trials involving over 700 patients at sites across Australia.
 
The new funding from our government will lift this effort, creating a national clinical network enabling improved governance, greater workforce capacity to attract more clinical trials with an aim to make the very latest, most promising treatments available to Australians living with MND.
 
In a vast country like Australia this also has the potential to increase accessibility to clinical trials, for patients in regional, rural and remote areas.
 
The Neale Daniher National MND Clinical Network will benefit all Australians touched by MND now, and for future generations.
 
It will be focused on accelerating the development and delivery of more effective treatments, better prevention and ultimately, hopefully, a cure.
 
I couldn’t think of a more rightful legacy for Neale than a Clinical Network named in his honour that will continue his ongoing work to fight MND.