Claire Sullivan

I think it's a really sad time for the entire MND community.

My heart breaks for the Danaher family and...

I think every time anyone passes the way, it's really sad.

But for someone with this sort of profile, it really just brings a lot of the emotion together because he was so well known.

And it's just a really sad time.

MND is a grouping of rapidly progressing neurological conditions known as motor neurotic disease.

With MND, you lose the ability to use your body, generally while there's no cognitive department.

So you lose the ability to orc and to use your hands, to chew and swallow, and ultimately to breathe.

We don't know what causes the disease.

We don't have any real medicines or treatments.

And we really don't have good evidence about how you could prove quality of life and extensive life ability.

So it's a horrendous diagnosis that is just awful in every way.

That's exactly right.

People with motor neurone disease tell me every week that we use the ability to do something they used to do.

Get off the couch, get into the shower, hug their children.

About 15% of cases have a degree of dementia.

So there is subcognitive decline.

But the overwhelming majority of people, it's the function of their body whilst their brain remains completely intact.

It's a remarkable challenge for the research community.

We still don't know enough about this disease.