June 5, 2025 • 39 mins
For today's episode, we're very lucky to have Bec Daniher joining us in studio ahead of FightMND's 11th Big Freeze at the MCG.
In 2013 AFL legend Neale Daniher, Bec's father, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. But rather than fade into the background, Neale dedicated his life to helping prevent the suffering of those who’ll be diagnosed in the future. The charity he co-founded, FightMND, has since raised $115 million and raised awareness of this devastating illness in Australian culture.
Receive 15% off the package price when you purchase a selected 2025 Samsung TV and selected Samsung Soundbar in the same transaction at Harvey Norman. Limited time only!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Here at Two Good Sports, we would like to acknowledge
the traditional owners of the land on which we record
this podcast. The were innerie people. This land was never seated,
always was, always will be. Hello, Hello, hello, and welcome
to another episode of Two Good Sports Sports Newstyles Differently,
I'm Georgie Tunney and.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm maybe Jialmy and is it too beolishous? So this
is my favorite episode already. Oh, I think this is
our favorite guest that we've had. It's going to be
a massive episode for a cause very close to both
of our hearts. But I like you to make big
claims early.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm not you're the big claims early.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I like to reserve judgment, but I'm just I'm going
to go out there and say it.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
But George, has your week.
Speaker 5 (00:39):
Been not too bad? Not too bad?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
This week's been pretty busy. I've been interstate for different shoots.
I've been in Melbourne for different shoots. But we've both
found the time to any celeb since I last spoke
to you. Ah yet do you know what I've got
this week? We've got Cynthia Rivo coming up. A chat
with Cynthia Rivo. Your mate, my mate, my mate, my mate,
my best friend. And also I got to have a
lovely sit down chat with Jared Butler.
Speaker 5 (01:03):
Do you remember Jered Butler? Gerard Butler, Gerard Butler, Yeah,
I mean Jared to me?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Do I remember Gerard Butler? Sometimes? I swear to God,
it's like, you're trolling me with this friendship? Do you
know Gard Butler?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Ps, I love you. Never cried watching that? Are you
off your head?
Speaker 6 (01:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So that's that's gonna be that's gonna
be coming.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
He's so delightful. And he was in that rom com
with Catherine Yeah yeah about men sucking and then they
go in the hot air balloon. Of course, Butler is
he is hang on is a geredal Gerard?
Speaker 5 (01:39):
I mean I called him Jared the whole time, So
I'm hoping it to Jared.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So you know, you say potato, I say potatos in origin?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
She fine, don't need to fact check?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yah, fine, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
How have you not brought that up with me?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well?
Speaker 5 (01:59):
One of those things? You know what?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It's like, I was last night, I don't know, it
was last minute involved. They're like, hey, are you able
to like have some time out of your weekend. It
was on a weekend. Yes, I'm a hero.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
Can you talk to Jared Butler?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And I said, oh, okay, all right, I will, I will,
And he was absolutely of course, he was delightful. He
was delightful and spoiler, I'm not sure exactly when the
chat is going to air, but we do talk a
lot about family for him, and he is he is really, really,
(02:33):
really really lovely. We also talk about PS I Love
You that's in there, and I nearly get him to cry.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Dear listener, you just got an insight into what it's
like to be Georgie's friend.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
She's like, oh, during the week, what did I do?
What did I?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Cynthia Rivo and draw Butler? But are you good? Are
you good? How was the grocery store the other day?
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Gone?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well? Go well for you?
Speaker 5 (02:54):
A'le nine? How that what's in there?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Probably a DVD P Yes I Love You Classic? If
you will, okay, we need to push on. That can
be your good sports good spot. But is he divine?
Speaker 5 (03:09):
Is he divine with a capital D?
Speaker 7 (03:11):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (03:11):
My goodness? Lovely?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
It was one of sometimes they're not sometimes and you're like.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Mariah, we love you, babe.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
But what's going on?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Oh my god, I didn't know that we were all okay,
good sports, bastball going out the window. When you talk
about this, you didn't interview with Mariah Carey recently where
she looked like she.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Was a I yes, yes, it's one of those ones
where I was so thrilled and excited to talk to
her because it's Mariah and so many different factors, like
when you have these zoom chats sometimes like the setups
and things can be really tricky. So I'm sure that
I was on like a little screen in the corner,
you know, just for her, and she's like, you can't really,
(03:51):
she doesn't know who she's talking to. She's looking at
the Camera's not a thing, but it.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Was she might have to perform.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
It was just one. It was.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
It was a It was a hard, a hard chat,
and I was working real hard, working, real hard.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
When there are follow up articles to your interview about
the fact that she may not have been real, yeah,
I mean we've done robotic chats with people that give
you one word answers before, but it's different when it
actually hits the newstream, being like, well the real Mariah
please tend up?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Does she have some sort of paralysis going on?
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Do you know what? She's still?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
There were moments where she was Mariah, do you know
what I mean? There were moments that I was like,
she was the Maria I was expecting that's what I
should say in that She's still.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
There was parts where she's like, you know, basically and
like you know what.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I was like, Oh, people assholes, and she just goes
basically and I was like, there's the Queen.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
There, she is, there she is.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Do you want to talk about the other article that
you made from that interview and what happened with the koalas?
Speaker 5 (04:48):
I forgot about that?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Did I maybe maybe suggest that if Mariah truly did
want to have a koala as her writer, and that's
the thing that people have backstage to make them feel
more comfortable, if she did want to have a koala there.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
She better watch out because you might get chlamydia from koa's.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I just needed to tell her it was a PSA
and Mariah again, the Queen stood up and she said no,
I wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Okay, So this is this week's around to Mariah Carey
and just the little Shaded Families with dra Butler, I
will very very quickly have a good sport that is
a sport because we better I mean entertainment and sport blur,
but probably not that far my.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Good sport of the week.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Look, could I talk about Joe Monteburerou being finally announced
as a Matilda's coach and Water signing.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
With Waiting, Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
I could.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
But what I.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Wanna highlight here is Mary Fowler. Now we know that
she's injured at the moment, but she's actually come out
and said this, And I find this so interesting, Georgie,
I'd love your take.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
I enjoy playing football, but I wouldn't say it's my passion.
There are a lot of things that I enjoy about it,
and I really enjoy traveling and being with my teammates
and the people.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
That I've met through football.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
But like if I finished it tomorrow, like I probably
wouldn't have any regrets. I think there's other things outside
of football that I am more passionate about.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Normalize your occupation, not having to be the be all
and end all of your entire being and personality. I
love that she came out and said this, particularly with
football fans who can be so aggressive. We've only had
them on the side of if you don't pronounce something
absolutely perfectly, they.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Come for you, don't like you.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
But I love that she's had the confidence here to say, look,
I love it and I love traveling like it, but
it's not who I am.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, and do you know what, I think that this
honesty from Mary Fowler, we still aren't used to seeing
it in world sport, even though I think that it
is such a healthy perspective to have. I mean, Nick
Kurios tries to have this opinion and everyone loathes him
for it. Right, there's a lot of other different issues
going on there too. It doesn't take Yeah, there's things
(06:59):
happening that's just for me. But essentially one of Nick
Curios's biggest crimes is that basketball is actually his passion,
not tennis. Right, It was a shame that he wasn't
as good as that as he is at tennis. But
I think when you're treating your sport as an actual job,
that is a far healthier way to approach it sometimes
rather than having it be your one thousand percent identity.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And I love that people can use that in their
own life, and so many people look up to people
at Mary Fowler and go oh, but being all consumed
by what you do often means the win and loss
can really devastate you on a level that isn't healthy.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I love that from her.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Well, it brings perspective, doesn't it. It brings absolute perspective.
And what a lovely little tie into my good sport
of the week, which actually happens to be a great sport.
And that is our next guest who is going to
give us their perspective on life.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
And everyone better be listening.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Away, Jelmy. We talk about family a lot on this
podcast because to succeed in any code or league or competition,
we know that it takes a village.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
And just as there's no iron team, there's no one
in family.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Families build footballers, they support clubs, They carve legacies, some
more than most, like the Danaher family. What they mean
to the AFL world is hard to put into words.
Danaher is one of those names. It's both whispered with
reverence and yelled with either triumph or despair, depending on
who you support. It's also one that now transcends sport.
(08:37):
In twenty thirteen, bona Fide Legend certified Neil Danaher was
diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Now, at that time, most
people would have only known MND as the thing that
Stephen Hawking had. It's not an exaggeration to say that
because of Neil and his family, that's no longer the case.
Their charity five MND has raised not only one hundred
(08:58):
and fifteen million dollars to find a cue, but it's
also raised awareness, so much so that come Monday, the
MCG will be filled with one hundred thousand people, each
head donning a blue pattern beanie for the eleventh edition
of The Big Freeze, a match dedicated to ending this
god awful disease, each person knowing and understanding in part
(09:18):
what MND does to a family. Now, someone who understands
better than most, better than anyone, really is Beck Danaher,
Neil's daughter and an executive director at Fire MND. She's
responsible for designing the very first Big Freeze beanie, and
we are thrilled that she's taken time out of her
outrageously busy schedule. Jelmy did say the words she's busier
(09:38):
than the Queen to join two good sports today. Please welcome,
Thank you very.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Much, thank you.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
I don't want to take credit for the design of
the first beanie because if you look back, that's a shocker,
a shocker. We've come a long way.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
We have our beanies on today in support for Big
Freeze eleven. What you have been able to do in
this space is unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
We're going to get to it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
But I've heard you say, Beck that one of your
ultimate goals, though, is that you're in the business for
going out of business.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Can you kind of explain what that?
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Do?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
You say?
Speaker 4 (10:15):
We are working towards a day where there are treatments
and a cure for M and D. Fighter men D
doesn't exist. You don't see the blue beanies anywhere other
than pulling it out to remember what we've done. So
we want to just not need to be here, and
really I just go I reflect back to when Dad
sat across from me at the cafe and he said,
I've been diagnosed with M and D. I didn't know
(10:36):
what that was. I had no idea. And the thing
that just was like the focus of that was there's
no treatments, there's no cure. Twenty seven months as average
life span. So we want to be in a position
one day where a daughter or son isn't sitting across
from a family member and hearing the news. So that
is absolutely we are in the business of going out.
(10:57):
We don't want to exist. That is the time when
I lose my job. Hopefully because it's when we go
out of business, we will be popping champagnes and celebrating
every moment.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Can you take us back to that moment in the
cafe because I think, and again we were talking off air,
We're so grateful for you always unboxing this moment which
is so personal, like family, family health and family issues
are usually so personal. And your family have been so
courageous in putting this on the wider scale for the
betterment of everyone else. If and Neil has often said,
you know, this might not help me, but this will
(11:31):
help someone else. And I'm out here doing this for
the wider community. And but that moment, I mean, I'll
speak for myself, and especially I think when your dad's
sort of into sport dad superman, Dad's meant to be bulletproof.
He's your protector, he's you know, and particularly kneel Dana
her with this you know, feared but loved figure in
our brutal game.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
How did you feel?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I think I was so naive. I was twenty two,
twenty three when he sat down and I was I'd
made the Australian team for rowing and I missed out
and missed out and this was like the ultimate goal fulfilled,
like I was pulling on the green and gold. And
Dad asked me. I think it was about two months
before I went overseas to Korea, South Korea, and he
(12:16):
sat me down and he just said, oh, I've got
something to tell you. And he was living in Wa
and I was like, oh, great, like let's have a chat,
and no doubt I sat down and was probably talking
about myself and rowing and everything I was going through
in Oh, it's so tough.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I'm twenty two.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
And he just said, oh, I'd lived it in quite
a cavalier way. Because I think Dad's always protective. And
when I looked at him, he was fifty three, he
was so robust. He was my same dad. I couldn't
see any changes in him. He had just some weaknesses
in his body that he noticed that we hadn't seen
just yet. And he's like, okay, well I need to
tell you. I've come over here. It's I've just been
(12:54):
at Saint Vincent's got my second diagnosis, and they've told
me that I have MND. And I was like, I'm
not across that. Like you said, I just knew Steven
Hawking had it. He had it for a really long time.
So we like talking about a chronic illness. So what
do we do? And the first question is okay, cool,
So what do we do? What treatments? How do you
(13:15):
attack this beast? And he's just like, there's no treatments. Yeah,
there's nothing we can do, but that's okay. And he
this is what he said to me, and I still
remember He's like, you know, I could walk out today
and get hit by a bus. Like, you know, we
just need to focus on what we've got. We've got today,
We've got now you know, there will be battles ahead
of us, but we just need to take it one
(13:36):
day at a time. And for our family, play on
became our mantra. So Dad had this amazing way and
for me, I talk about this that this was the
most pivotal thing that someone has done in my life.
He chose to listen to mister positive, not to listen
to mister negative. So He led from the front and
set our family up with how we would approach this
(13:58):
really unknown challenge. He said, Okay, this is how we
can fight back. So he gave us a way to
not just get locked into just watching your dad's slowly decline.
He gave us a way to fight back, to find
a way that we could feel in control and take
on the fight. And for me, that was it is
the most powerful thing to have someone not just tell
(14:20):
you what to do, but to model it and to
show you the way and give you an avenue to
be like, Okay, I'm with you. I want to support you.
I am so grateful for his mindset. He's incredible.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
When is it hardest to play on? Though?
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Many, many times, many times I think, so M and
D is a slow progression. We're lucky. So I got
to put it, We're very lucky. The average last band
is twenty seven months. That's very real. I had a
friend from diagnosis. I had a friend who lasted six weeks.
So when I talk about a slow progression, I'm talking
about Dad's journey, not others. It's very different.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
That's a misconception is that there are many different times
categories when it comes to MNDS.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Yeah, and we're still trying to work that out. So
that's why we're more we learn about M and D,
the more complicated is and the more that we realize
we've got So we've got to find the answer to
how do we categorize them so that we're putting them
in the right avenue. When you talk about M and D,
you can sort of like cancer has different forms of
cancer and you don't treat them the same. So we're
in that sort of same boat. But we're lucky that
(15:24):
Dad is a slow progressing and when it gets hard,
it's it's the moments where you come up to like
a milestone and you realize you're not going to get
it back. So once something happens, so for example, Dad's
now in a wheelchair, we know he's not going to
get better. That's a moment and a really visible moment
where he's not walking anymore and he's in a wheelchair.
(15:45):
I've got one coming up on Monday, and I still
get a little bit emotional about this one. But we
can't get him on the stage, so he's going to
be down on the ground. He'll be there as long
as it's not running sideways, he's gonna be on that
stage at the bottom. But you know, for me, I've
been up there on that stage with him pretty much
from the beginning. It's this joint memories that we have together.
(16:09):
We celebrate it, like we I get to watch his
face and he lights up when those sliders go down.
You've seen him. It's just like it gets so much
a joyment out of seeing someone submerged in eye.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I genuinely like, short of my immediate family, I don't
know that anyone's looked at me with that much.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Joy as that.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
You just feel this really palpable gratitude and joy and
coming from someone that you admire so much, if like,
it is the most special and one of the greatest
honors of not only my career and my life to
receive the invitation from the Dannahs to be one of
the sliders that But you're right though, in those sort
of moments, you treasure them more though, don't you. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (16:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
And to not have him up there, that's another thing,
because I know, and God willing he's there next year,
that means he's always going to be down And so
when it gets hard, it's when they're you just reminded
about what's happening. You can sort of let it sit
in the background, and each day you've got your new
normal and you know, okay, well, dad's like this, and
this is how we're going to interact with him. He's
(17:11):
a bit tired, he's up and about. You know, it changes.
You just have those sort of reminders where okay, there
is something that's you know, a bit more has changed
and you're just like, wow, okay, got to be focused.
That's our new normal. But that's crap.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
It's hard to be mister positive when yeah, yeah, all
the time, no one can be missed.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
I keep going back like if he's mister positive about this,
like I can't get stuck.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, exactly, I can't get stuck.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Like sometimes I will walk in I was like, oh, yes,
the kids are being a pain, and I'm fine. I'm good.
I'm really good. Actually I'm great, up and about.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yes, you know you said that your dad armed you
with the tools of going right. We're going to do
There's nothing anyone can do, but we're going to do something.
When you started fight M and D in the Big Freeze,
not only did nothing like this exist in Melbourne, nothing
like this existed in earlier or the world. So this
was a concept that was very first conceptualized by you
(18:05):
and this team that are just the most phenomenal people.
Did you ever think that you could possibly just be
walking down the street in any city and see people
donning the beanie which.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Happens to me this morning driving into the studio and
they crossed the street and I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
You watched broadcasts at Opta Stadium and it's more blue
than it is purple.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Or the yellow and golf.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
The big thing is that people will choose to wear
this beanie instead of their team's beanie. Yeah, which you
know what I mean. And that's the cut through. Yeah,
that's the cut through.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
On the Big Freeze day, you don't see Collingwen colors,
you don't see Melbourne colors. No, you just see the
Fighter man d the Big Freeze blue. And that is powerful.
It's so powerful. But I think that just speaks to
the power of the game, like Foot is just so
much more than the marks and disposals and the handbles.
It is this game that can bring you such joy's sorrow.
(19:00):
You connect to you, it can give you an escape
to get away from what's happening, and it just brings
communities together. And what I've learned from the Big Freeze
across that it like it's like hope's contagious. If you
can give someone something to believe on and a way
to act, they can move mountains. And that's what they've proven.
We went into this absolutely not knowing anything about fundraising.
(19:20):
Was I was a roller, Dad was a coach.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
We had a touch on you were a very very
impressive athlete.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
We could have had you on as an athlete full stop.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
There where so obviously rolling and it's such a competitive field.
Did this diagnosis and this shift of purpose change that
path for you at the ripe old age of twenty two?
Speaker 7 (19:40):
Ah?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yes, I just I was on the team and I
like finished the team Australia.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
Yeah, it seems national.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
And I'd been away from home for over six months.
And then about two months before I left, Dad told
me and he's like, oh, I might you know, I
might be lucky to have twenty seven months. I might not.
You know again, we just see where their cards fall.
And I was like, well, I don't want to be
away for six months of that, and you know I
(20:12):
love sportsport is just ingrained in us and it's so
important to us. But for me at that moment, I
found it really challenging to focus all my attention on
improving myself and getting faster and getting stronger and really
putting all at the end of the day. Sport does
have a lot of self because you have to, like
(20:32):
you have to get the best out of yourself to
be able to perform on the top stage. And for
a long time I was driven by that and the
sense of achievement that you get from that. Once Dad
told me what was happening, I lost the passion to
focus on improving myself and I wanted to figure out
how can I help beyond just me. So I was like,
(20:54):
I've been a very driven individual if I do something,
even when I got itch.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Oh, I can pick up on that now by the
fact that you've literally moved mountains.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, Like, I know you're a rower, but I'm pretty
sure you got sturdy shoulders anyway.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Because it a lot, I just wanted to I'm a
person that would throw everything at it, Like I'd choose
one thing and I'd just go crazy for it. So
it was swimming, then it became rowing, and then when
Dad told me this. I was just like, I don't
think I can put one hundred and ten percent focus,
which you have to be at the top level. You
can't think about anything else.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
And rowing into a storm that got.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Yeah, I just I can't put that level attention. And
it's moall than love. I don't have the love, I
don't have the passion because I want to focus on
something else. And so you know, it is always hard
to retire, especially at twenty two to twenty three. But
it was something that I felt very comfortable with at
the end of the day because I had something that
I felt was like a high purpose in a way,
(21:50):
like it was beyond me, and I was very content
to do that.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
Have you ever asked yourself, what if.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Watching the rowing all the time, even watching the footy
and seeing the AFLW girl, Yeah, you're.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
A father daughter waiting Daisy Taylor, who come on? But
I think we all do that now.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
We look at the path, but we also look and
we see that there's forty three thousand people at a Matilda's.
I know only and just go how fantastic the women's sports.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Amount of opportunity to play women's spot at the top
league is so good. I'm looking at my girls growing
up and your opportunities a't real. I'm going to be like,
come on, take me back.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
But it's amazing that you talk about, you know, that
passion and that drive for achievement. I mean, now you
stand and there's one hundred thousand people cheering for you
at one of the biggest sporting stadiums. I mean, it's
not how you would have imagined growing up that you
would have received this sort of love, but the general
love that the higher Australia community has for you and
your family and your dad, genuinely being Australian. Have there
(23:08):
ever been such a unanimous Oh well obviously yeah, I
mean clearly knew.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
How have we not done this? We got to big
phrase eleven without this happening? Come?
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Was that something that? Was that a pinch me moment
for the family.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yes, yeah, we didn't know and we didn't have the
same sort of confidence. Were naturally pessimistic bunch. So we're
just missed a positive pessimistic Yeah exactly exactly, isn't it?
I think for anything around us, Like you know, Dad
never set out to get the accolades. That was never
what he was after and when he was nominated, you
(23:43):
have to accept it. And there was actually a long
period of time where he's like, is this the right thing?
And we're like, we were like, think about what it
will do for a course. You know, He's always driven like,
whatever we can do for fight him and D, that's
what I'm after. And so we were at the awards
ceremony and I think I was on a table with
my family and it was beautiful that we could all
(24:04):
be there, but we were just rocking back and forth,
just stress, heartbeats up, so stressed because I was just like,
you know, even for Dad to get to Canberra was
such a big deal. It was a lot of effort
went to get him up there, and I was just
like so so nervous. And then when they read out
his name was just like these release of emotions and
(24:25):
to see him on the stage and it's just always
when I see Dad smile, unjust that gets me. So
he was up there with this big smile and again
he had this beautiful speech talking about fight M and
D's goal was always to live in a world free
from M and D. People may say it's a dream,
but I don't believe it's an impossible one. And you know,
just he just brings that. It was called the Reverend
(24:48):
when he played was a coach at Melbourne and you
can see that ability of storytelling. He's got still so
much to give. It's really amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Because when he was a coach, Melbourne wasn't necessarily one
of the powerhouse teams. He had to almost recruit people
to get involved, didn't he They were on the.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Bottom of the ladder. Get the new guy from over
in the west. I'm sure he doesn't know what he's
in for.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
But then that kind of mentality though, of battling, right, Yeah,
like that also has to be ingrained, not only within
your dad but within you. And is that something that
you're looking to pass on to the girls now?
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yes, absolutely so. My little Hazel, her middle name is
Gene and that's after my great aunt who lived to
one hundred and four, who lost her husband during the war.
So like along, she was young when she lost her husband.
Independence firecracker. I remember her in her late nineties chasing
me my brother around the backyard. At one hundred. She
(25:48):
went up to get a driver's license, said I don't
need ten years, to just give me five and they
gave her a driver's last she drove every week to
go watch the d's play Like to me, she was
a firecracker five and I was like, that is what
we want to instill. And I am so lucky with
what Dad's doing. He wrote a book and it was
about their learnings. He never expected to really even meet
(26:09):
his grandkids, and now he's met six of them and
he's writing what starters as a letter over achiever went
into a book. But it's a life lessons And I've
learned so much from Dad and I still do every day,
and I really want them to see who Pop was,
what he achieved, what he learned, and more to the
(26:30):
cases like he's a fighter, bit like how he thought
about things like you can everything can be taken away
from you, but your ability to choose your attitude, you can't.
You've got no say in what will happen to you.
You've always got to say in your response. And that
was the leading I think lesson he's taught us. And
it's so powerful that you can walk out something can happen.
(26:53):
You've got a moment to choose which way are you're
going to go, Mister positive or mister negative? And That's
what I want our kids to learn, because if you
can listen to mister positive, you're gonna fight. You're gonna
be a fighter. If you listen to mister negative, you
won't be in the fight.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Yeah, the fight will be over before it's even begun.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
In all honesty, Well, I think the beautiful thing is
now is that people are always going to tell your
kids how amazing your pop was and through of how
vulnerable and your family have been with all of us.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
We feel like we know Neil, and we feel like
we know.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
I feel like I know the smile.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah yeah, and like what a blessing that is to
have someone doing such good.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I have it.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
I have it.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
We like to talk maths on this podcast sometimes because
it is early. No, no, we're not, don't worry. We're just
not your typical sports podcast. We do use phrases like
abacus on here every now and then.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
And I just wanted to kind of look numbers. I'm
going to show myself here.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Numbers can sometimes mean nothing, right, like they're just like
you quite understand them.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
It's difficult to comprehend.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
But one hundred and fifteen million dollars, I think it's
even more than that now, so more than one hundred
and fifty million dollars vi MND has raised. Where does
that go and what does it change?
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Yeah, so when dad was diagnosed, I'll take you back
so we can see what the difference is. When dad
was diagnosed. We a year later, the ice Pocket Challenge
swept across the world and two hundred and twenty million
dollars was raised for M and D, which is incredible.
So we raised a million here and a lot of
the time where my frustrations was because I had some
(28:31):
my dad was going through it. They were calling it als.
I actually had no idea what it was, so it
like sparked a little bit of awareness, but there wasn't much.
And then add onto that, the National Health and Medical
Research Council, we're putting zero point six percent of the
funding pool to M and D research, So we're just like,
there's no treatment, there's no cure. We really have no
funding to be able to change that. And that's there.
(28:54):
All that was happening is really small scale grants because
that's the funding pool you had, and that's not going
to get us where we need to get to.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
So we're getting to change it. The researchers.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
A couple of years in we were trying to get
the first Australian clinical trial here to Australia and when
we were talking to the overseas counterpart, they're like, listen,
that's cute. You're in Australia. Yes, so far away. That's
too hard. We don't want to talk to you like
we're not coming. So well, we'll do it. We'll do
it ourselves. So we started fundraising more and we brought
Now we brought fifteen clinical trials here in Australia, so
(29:28):
we've been able to allow people with MND to be
part of the solution apart to fight back. But more importantly,
we're now the third biggest fun funder in the world
Little Australia, third biggest funder in MD research. And just
last year we had sixty delegates from across the world
come to Australia. They don't like coming here because it
is far away.
Speaker 7 (29:47):
The American Oh, Americans, they're unhappy, so they came here
because they can see what we're doing is all about
disrupting and changing.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
So it's dramatically shifted the land escape. It is such
an impressive number, but it's not there yet, So we
just have to keep going. We can see the changes
that are happening, and we can see the excitement building,
and I can meet these families that are like, Okay,
well there's so much going on. There's lots of talk. Okay,
how can we move it faster? And that's our every
intention is to figure out how can we accelerate that.
(30:21):
But we just have to keep going. I'm just as
a family member, I get frustrated with the process because
I just want to be there tomorrow. I want I
want like the COVID vaccination time.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Level of intensity.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
But I'm pretty sure there was a lot more than
a one hundred and fifteen million that went into that
and a worldwide approach, but you can't sort of focus
on that. I just want to see it accelerate quicker. Yes,
I wish there was a Neil dunherth thirty years ago
so we could have been ahead. But again, the cards,
these are our cards. We're going to take them and
we're going to find a way to use them in
the best possible way.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
And you can't overestimate the power of hope. And that's
what clinical trials give someone to be able to go
well I can't do anything, and MEGA will actually in
Australia is a clinical trial that you can be a
part of. We can't tell you it's going to make
things better, but we're trying exactly and it feels like
a step that people can take and without fundiment defunding
that that doesn't exist, so they do hit a roadblock,
going well, there's nothing I can do but wait.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
To feel like you can be a part of the
difference is incredible.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
It's the control I think that you mentioned at the
start of this chat, like being able to give people
back a sense of that, you know, not really knowing
exactly how effective it's going to be, but just even
that sense of control over your own life is so key.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
And these people are so beautiful. When I speak to them,
it's they're like, Okay, I'm in a clinical control. It
gives me hope. It gives me hope. But sometimes I'm
realistic that I don't I might be getting laid down
and I'm like, Okay, well I don't think it's going
to help me, but I am now part of the solution. Yeah,
I'm a part. What I'm doing is adding value to
(31:55):
our research journey. That is powerful. As well, like I
just think they're just like I am doing something. I'm
fighting back in some way to be told just to
sit back. And Dad was told tick off the bucket
list and he's like, I don't get any joy from that,
Like that is not something that will make me bounce
out of bed. The what lights of fire inside of
(32:16):
him is fighting back, is finding a way to do something,
is taking control of your situation. And that's what clinical
trials can do.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
And we're not done yet. We'd love to be done yet.
We'd love you to be out of a job. We'd
love you to be out there on the picket line
going someone, but we're not there yet.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
But what we do do.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
On this podcast is have fun facts. And I've got
a fun fact for you, Georgie, because there has been
a launch of a virtual beanie and this is a
new concept because d they just don't rest do that.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
They're like, well, don't do it different.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
And we talk about that visual and if you're lucky
enough to be at the MCG on the King's birthday
or was the Queen's birthday match and to look out
and see that sea of blue, it's one of the
most powerful moments for mine in Australian sports. Oh yeah, period,
we're going to do that and we know the power
of social media. Now, as you said, it's still about
awareness and the awareness has gone so far, but we
(33:05):
can always always do more.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
So I think.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
McGrath pink MCG. You're filling it up with the seats,
you can now do the same with a virtual beanie.
So talk us through this concept because it's new and
we're hoping to fill the MCG.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
Yes, so we talk about how M and D doesn't
know bort us, so neither deleet. We don't want to
restrict what we're trying to achieve just to the MCG
because everywhere in Australia there are people impacted or inspired
by the fight. I want to get involved. So this
year we're launching our digital Beanie, which is a fun
way to get involved with the call. So you jump
on to Big Freeze, dot com dot au. You donate
(33:39):
so it's all tax deductible for those that are getting
ready for tax time.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Businesses rude by everyone. How many employees do you have? Deduction?
Capital D deduction?
Speaker 4 (33:53):
And so you donate and in return you get a
digital beanie. You write your name you might write your
family name, you might write the name of someone that's
doing it tough and might not be able to do
it themselves. So it just gives a really fun way
to get involved with the cause. Pop on socials show
that you're backing the cause. We want to say not
just the mcg blue, we want to say social media
go blue as well. So that's what we're really hoping
(34:15):
over the next couple of days if you're able to
people at getting involved in that fun, different, different way
to donate.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
So the beanie you can wear in all weather, oh yeah, oh.
Speaker 5 (34:24):
One hundred, the benie you go weather.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
And it is like again if you watch and again
Neil is doing interviews still and you're again busier than
anyone that we know. So the fact that you found
this time for us this morning, thank you so much.
If you see this and go gee, like how like
what can I do? Pick up the phone?
Speaker 6 (34:45):
Do it?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Donate because if everyone does it, then these clinical trials
can go further. And yes there's a lot of money raised,
but they're still so far to go, and I know
that we're giving the money to the right people. There's
so many causes where you sit back and go, yeah,
but what's actually happening. If ever, you're going to have
confidence that you're supporting something that's going to do everything
(35:07):
they can to make the world better by getting rid
of this awful beasts to fight him and d team oh.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
It is, and beg a little bit of a curly
one for me just to finish this delightful chat. I
mean in a future many many years away, hopefully a
future without your dad, are you still fighting?
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Always? Always? Dad is creating a legacy that will change
the world, and the greatest designer we could do is
to not see that through. So it is up to
all of us to make sure that when the day
comes at our leader is no longer able to lead,
that we pick up the charge and we carry on.
(35:48):
Because this is about people's lives. There is a one
in three hundred chants of someone getting M and D,
So if you're at the MCG, you think about how
many people will get an M and D diagnosis. So
we just have to stop that. We just have to
find a way to close off this beast of a disease.
And that means we've come so far we cannot stop.
We can't stop until there is this eureka moment where
(36:11):
everyone across Australia is celebrating because everyone across Australia, they're
the ones that have made this possible. We talk about
this isn't about one person. We talk about Dad a lot,
but this is not about one person. This is about
the thousands and thousands of people that have taken notice,
bought a beanie, gonna buy a digital beanie, donated. It's
a fundraising like it's the power of people. They can
(36:33):
move mountains. They've made this possible. So I want to
make sure that we are celebrating as a collective because
we would be nowhere if they didn't listen to when
dad said he needed help.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
The Dan and her family, My god, we're right on
the tuch.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
I'm so behind you.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
We speak a lot about your dad and how inspirational
he is. You are one of the most inspirational people
I know and.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
Through all look no deal listeners backs getting like moving.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Around truly because the way that you also you mentioned
you've got a one year old and a three year
old that has also happened through different levels of pregnancy
and sleep through all of this, and again you wouldn't
know because you're always there with a big smile, and
this is a massive organization to be fronting and to
front up time and time again in front of cameras,
in front of all different media. Again, this wasn't your
(37:21):
chosen career path, and yet today you're like going to
speak to this club, going to interview this person. It's
just it's relentless on you and I'm sure it takes
a big toll in your family life too, And we're
just so so grateful for you. And anyone who has
the privilege of being in your presence knows they're in
the presence of just this kind, wonderful, giving person and
we're just you should be so proud of you. I
(37:42):
know you're proud of dad, but we are so immensely
proud of you. And again, your girls will grow up
knowing how great their granddad was, but they're going to
see this powerhouse of a woman who has also moved
mountains love you.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
That's very kind. I say, this is a privilege to
be a part of and to be able to do
this and find an hour outlet for a really difficult
situation and find the positive. So it's a privilege to
be able to do this and to talk to you,
both of you, so thank you so much for inviting
me in today. I was so excited when I got
the call.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Don't be too cold on Monday.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Oh I don't love this slide, but there's a big
fun of me that's like, I don't really want to
be Virginie.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
One of my favorite moments of my life was when
Jelmy told me that she was going to Jesus and
I got so excited because I knew she'd commit one
thousand percent. And then the outfit was impec It was amazing,
but I was like, you know who hates being cold
more than anyone on this planet?
Speaker 3 (38:35):
Dressed for the Arctic in a studio She's got fifteen.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
And as she was going down the thing, I was like,
here we go.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
And as soon as she came out, I was.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Like, cold, so thank you as well.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
We're also grat Oh god, we cannot wait to watch again.
Virtual beanies go online, get your axle beanie out and
wear it. It's cold, particularly if you're Melbourne today, so
it's a perfect day to get it.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
You can get it at Cole's Bunnings and Poles as.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Well Cole's Bunning's Shell Ready express and online at fight
MND dot org dot au. And to be annoying and
throw another website. Of course, the digital beanie head to
Big Freeze. It is Big Freese time, Big Freeze dot
com dot au. You'll be able to get your digital
beanie there. It's a lot of fun. It's such an
easy way to get involved, personalize it, take just do
(39:25):
whatever you want with it. Just don't We've taken out
swear words, so just fair one.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Yeah, she needs another bean be I love you, thanks
so much for coming.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
You so much, guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Actually, Beck before you go, because we have wrapped up
this episode now jell me so until next week, dear
listener
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Be a good sport and help fight MND mald She
nailed it.
Here at Two Good Sports, we would like to acknowledge
the traditional owners of the land on which we record
this podcast. The were innerie people. This land was never seated,
always was, always will be. Hello, Hello, hello, and welcome
to another episode of Two Good Sports Sports Newstyles Differently,
I'm Georgie Tunney and.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm maybe Jialmy and is it too beolishous? So this
is my favorite episode already. Oh, I think this is
our favorite guest that we've had. It's going to be
a massive episode for a cause very close to both
of our hearts. But I like you to make big
claims early.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm not you're the big claims early.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I like to reserve judgment, but I'm just I'm going
to go out there and say it.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
But George, has your week.
Speaker 5 (00:39):
Been not too bad? Not too bad?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
This week's been pretty busy. I've been interstate for different shoots.
I've been in Melbourne for different shoots. But we've both
found the time to any celeb since I last spoke
to you. Ah yet do you know what I've got
this week? We've got Cynthia Rivo coming up. A chat
with Cynthia Rivo. Your mate, my mate, my mate, my mate,
my best friend. And also I got to have a
lovely sit down chat with Jared Butler.
Speaker 5 (01:03):
Do you remember Jered Butler? Gerard Butler, Gerard Butler, Yeah,
I mean Jared to me?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Do I remember Gerard Butler? Sometimes? I swear to God,
it's like, you're trolling me with this friendship? Do you
know Gard Butler?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Ps, I love you. Never cried watching that? Are you
off your head?
Speaker 6 (01:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So that's that's gonna be that's gonna
be coming.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
He's so delightful. And he was in that rom com
with Catherine Yeah yeah about men sucking and then they
go in the hot air balloon. Of course, Butler is
he is hang on is a geredal Gerard?
Speaker 5 (01:39):
I mean I called him Jared the whole time, So
I'm hoping it to Jared.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So you know, you say potato, I say potatos in origin?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
She fine, don't need to fact check?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yah, fine, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
How have you not brought that up with me?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well?
Speaker 5 (01:59):
One of those things? You know what?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It's like, I was last night, I don't know, it
was last minute involved. They're like, hey, are you able
to like have some time out of your weekend. It
was on a weekend. Yes, I'm a hero.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
Can you talk to Jared Butler?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And I said, oh, okay, all right, I will, I will,
And he was absolutely of course, he was delightful. He
was delightful and spoiler, I'm not sure exactly when the
chat is going to air, but we do talk a
lot about family for him, and he is he is really, really,
(02:33):
really really lovely. We also talk about PS I Love
You that's in there, and I nearly get him to cry.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Dear listener, you just got an insight into what it's
like to be Georgie's friend.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
She's like, oh, during the week, what did I do?
What did I?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Cynthia Rivo and draw Butler? But are you good? Are
you good? How was the grocery store the other day?
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Gone?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well? Go well for you?
Speaker 5 (02:54):
A'le nine? How that what's in there?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Probably a DVD P Yes I Love You Classic? If
you will, okay, we need to push on. That can
be your good sports good spot. But is he divine?
Speaker 5 (03:09):
Is he divine with a capital D?
Speaker 7 (03:11):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (03:11):
My goodness? Lovely?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
It was one of sometimes they're not sometimes and you're like.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Mariah, we love you, babe.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
But what's going on?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Oh my god, I didn't know that we were all okay,
good sports, bastball going out the window. When you talk
about this, you didn't interview with Mariah Carey recently where
she looked like she.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Was a I yes, yes, it's one of those ones
where I was so thrilled and excited to talk to
her because it's Mariah and so many different factors, like
when you have these zoom chats sometimes like the setups
and things can be really tricky. So I'm sure that
I was on like a little screen in the corner,
you know, just for her, and she's like, you can't really,
(03:51):
she doesn't know who she's talking to. She's looking at
the Camera's not a thing, but it.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Was she might have to perform.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
It was just one. It was.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
It was a It was a hard, a hard chat,
and I was working real hard, working, real hard.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
When there are follow up articles to your interview about
the fact that she may not have been real, yeah,
I mean we've done robotic chats with people that give
you one word answers before, but it's different when it
actually hits the newstream, being like, well the real Mariah
please tend up?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Does she have some sort of paralysis going on?
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Do you know what? She's still?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
There were moments where she was Mariah, do you know
what I mean? There were moments that I was like,
she was the Maria I was expecting that's what I
should say in that She's still.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
There was parts where she's like, you know, basically and
like you know what.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I was like, Oh, people assholes, and she just goes
basically and I was like, there's the Queen.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
There, she is, there she is.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Do you want to talk about the other article that
you made from that interview and what happened with the koalas?
Speaker 5 (04:48):
I forgot about that?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Did I maybe maybe suggest that if Mariah truly did
want to have a koala as her writer, and that's
the thing that people have backstage to make them feel
more comfortable, if she did want to have a koala there.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
She better watch out because you might get chlamydia from koa's.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I just needed to tell her it was a PSA
and Mariah again, the Queen stood up and she said no,
I wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Okay, So this is this week's around to Mariah Carey
and just the little Shaded Families with dra Butler, I
will very very quickly have a good sport that is
a sport because we better I mean entertainment and sport blur,
but probably not that far my.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Good sport of the week.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Look, could I talk about Joe Monteburerou being finally announced
as a Matilda's coach and Water signing.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
With Waiting, Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
I could.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
But what I.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Wanna highlight here is Mary Fowler. Now we know that
she's injured at the moment, but she's actually come out
and said this, And I find this so interesting, Georgie,
I'd love your take.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
I enjoy playing football, but I wouldn't say it's my passion.
There are a lot of things that I enjoy about it,
and I really enjoy traveling and being with my teammates
and the people.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
That I've met through football.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
But like if I finished it tomorrow, like I probably
wouldn't have any regrets. I think there's other things outside
of football that I am more passionate about.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Normalize your occupation, not having to be the be all
and end all of your entire being and personality. I
love that she came out and said this, particularly with
football fans who can be so aggressive. We've only had
them on the side of if you don't pronounce something
absolutely perfectly, they.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Come for you, don't like you.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
But I love that she's had the confidence here to say, look,
I love it and I love traveling like it, but
it's not who I am.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, and do you know what, I think that this
honesty from Mary Fowler, we still aren't used to seeing
it in world sport, even though I think that it
is such a healthy perspective to have. I mean, Nick
Kurios tries to have this opinion and everyone loathes him
for it. Right, there's a lot of other different issues
going on there too. It doesn't take Yeah, there's things
(06:59):
happening that's just for me. But essentially one of Nick
Curios's biggest crimes is that basketball is actually his passion,
not tennis. Right, It was a shame that he wasn't
as good as that as he is at tennis. But
I think when you're treating your sport as an actual job,
that is a far healthier way to approach it sometimes
rather than having it be your one thousand percent identity.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And I love that people can use that in their
own life, and so many people look up to people
at Mary Fowler and go oh, but being all consumed
by what you do often means the win and loss
can really devastate you on a level that isn't healthy.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I love that from her.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Well, it brings perspective, doesn't it. It brings absolute perspective.
And what a lovely little tie into my good sport
of the week, which actually happens to be a great sport.
And that is our next guest who is going to
give us their perspective on life.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
And everyone better be listening.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Away, Jelmy. We talk about family a lot on this
podcast because to succeed in any code or league or competition,
we know that it takes a village.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
And just as there's no iron team, there's no one
in family.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Families build footballers, they support clubs, They carve legacies, some
more than most, like the Danaher family. What they mean
to the AFL world is hard to put into words.
Danaher is one of those names. It's both whispered with
reverence and yelled with either triumph or despair, depending on
who you support. It's also one that now transcends sport.
(08:37):
In twenty thirteen, bona Fide Legend certified Neil Danaher was
diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Now, at that time, most
people would have only known MND as the thing that
Stephen Hawking had. It's not an exaggeration to say that
because of Neil and his family, that's no longer the case.
Their charity five MND has raised not only one hundred
(08:58):
and fifteen million dollars to find a cue, but it's
also raised awareness, so much so that come Monday, the
MCG will be filled with one hundred thousand people, each
head donning a blue pattern beanie for the eleventh edition
of The Big Freeze, a match dedicated to ending this
god awful disease, each person knowing and understanding in part
(09:18):
what MND does to a family. Now, someone who understands
better than most, better than anyone, really is Beck Danaher,
Neil's daughter and an executive director at Fire MND. She's
responsible for designing the very first Big Freeze beanie, and
we are thrilled that she's taken time out of her
outrageously busy schedule. Jelmy did say the words she's busier
(09:38):
than the Queen to join two good sports today. Please welcome,
Thank you very.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Much, thank you.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
I don't want to take credit for the design of
the first beanie because if you look back, that's a shocker,
a shocker. We've come a long way.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
We have our beanies on today in support for Big
Freeze eleven. What you have been able to do in
this space is unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
We're going to get to it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
But I've heard you say, Beck that one of your
ultimate goals, though, is that you're in the business for
going out of business.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Can you kind of explain what that?
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Do?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
You say?
Speaker 4 (10:15):
We are working towards a day where there are treatments
and a cure for M and D. Fighter men D
doesn't exist. You don't see the blue beanies anywhere other
than pulling it out to remember what we've done. So
we want to just not need to be here, and
really I just go I reflect back to when Dad
sat across from me at the cafe and he said,
I've been diagnosed with M and D. I didn't know
(10:36):
what that was. I had no idea. And the thing
that just was like the focus of that was there's
no treatments, there's no cure. Twenty seven months as average
life span. So we want to be in a position
one day where a daughter or son isn't sitting across
from a family member and hearing the news. So that
is absolutely we are in the business of going out.
(10:57):
We don't want to exist. That is the time when
I lose my job. Hopefully because it's when we go
out of business, we will be popping champagnes and celebrating
every moment.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Can you take us back to that moment in the
cafe because I think, and again we were talking off air,
We're so grateful for you always unboxing this moment which
is so personal, like family, family health and family issues
are usually so personal. And your family have been so
courageous in putting this on the wider scale for the
betterment of everyone else. If and Neil has often said,
you know, this might not help me, but this will
(11:31):
help someone else. And I'm out here doing this for
the wider community. And but that moment, I mean, I'll
speak for myself, and especially I think when your dad's
sort of into sport dad superman, Dad's meant to be bulletproof.
He's your protector, he's you know, and particularly kneel Dana
her with this you know, feared but loved figure in
our brutal game.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
How did you feel?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I think I was so naive. I was twenty two,
twenty three when he sat down and I was I'd
made the Australian team for rowing and I missed out
and missed out and this was like the ultimate goal fulfilled,
like I was pulling on the green and gold. And
Dad asked me. I think it was about two months
before I went overseas to Korea, South Korea, and he
(12:16):
sat me down and he just said, oh, I've got
something to tell you. And he was living in Wa
and I was like, oh, great, like let's have a chat,
and no doubt I sat down and was probably talking
about myself and rowing and everything I was going through
in Oh, it's so tough.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I'm twenty two.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
And he just said, oh, I'd lived it in quite
a cavalier way. Because I think Dad's always protective. And
when I looked at him, he was fifty three, he
was so robust. He was my same dad. I couldn't
see any changes in him. He had just some weaknesses
in his body that he noticed that we hadn't seen
just yet. And he's like, okay, well I need to
tell you. I've come over here. It's I've just been
(12:54):
at Saint Vincent's got my second diagnosis, and they've told
me that I have MND. And I was like, I'm
not across that. Like you said, I just knew Steven
Hawking had it. He had it for a really long time.
So we like talking about a chronic illness. So what
do we do? And the first question is okay, cool,
So what do we do? What treatments? How do you
(13:15):
attack this beast? And he's just like, there's no treatments. Yeah,
there's nothing we can do, but that's okay. And he
this is what he said to me, and I still
remember He's like, you know, I could walk out today
and get hit by a bus. Like, you know, we
just need to focus on what we've got. We've got today,
We've got now you know, there will be battles ahead
of us, but we just need to take it one
(13:36):
day at a time. And for our family, play on
became our mantra. So Dad had this amazing way and
for me, I talk about this that this was the
most pivotal thing that someone has done in my life.
He chose to listen to mister positive, not to listen
to mister negative. So He led from the front and
set our family up with how we would approach this
(13:58):
really unknown challenge. He said, Okay, this is how we
can fight back. So he gave us a way to
not just get locked into just watching your dad's slowly decline.
He gave us a way to fight back, to find
a way that we could feel in control and take
on the fight. And for me, that was it is
the most powerful thing to have someone not just tell
(14:20):
you what to do, but to model it and to
show you the way and give you an avenue to
be like, Okay, I'm with you. I want to support you.
I am so grateful for his mindset. He's incredible.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
When is it hardest to play on? Though?
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Many, many times, many times I think, so M and
D is a slow progression. We're lucky. So I got
to put it, We're very lucky. The average last band
is twenty seven months. That's very real. I had a
friend from diagnosis. I had a friend who lasted six weeks.
So when I talk about a slow progression, I'm talking
about Dad's journey, not others. It's very different.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
That's a misconception is that there are many different times
categories when it comes to MNDS.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Yeah, and we're still trying to work that out. So
that's why we're more we learn about M and D,
the more complicated is and the more that we realize
we've got So we've got to find the answer to
how do we categorize them so that we're putting them
in the right avenue. When you talk about M and D,
you can sort of like cancer has different forms of
cancer and you don't treat them the same. So we're
in that sort of same boat. But we're lucky that
(15:24):
Dad is a slow progressing and when it gets hard,
it's it's the moments where you come up to like
a milestone and you realize you're not going to get
it back. So once something happens, so for example, Dad's
now in a wheelchair, we know he's not going to
get better. That's a moment and a really visible moment
where he's not walking anymore and he's in a wheelchair.
(15:45):
I've got one coming up on Monday, and I still
get a little bit emotional about this one. But we
can't get him on the stage, so he's going to
be down on the ground. He'll be there as long
as it's not running sideways, he's gonna be on that
stage at the bottom. But you know, for me, I've
been up there on that stage with him pretty much
from the beginning. It's this joint memories that we have together.
(16:09):
We celebrate it, like we I get to watch his
face and he lights up when those sliders go down.
You've seen him. It's just like it gets so much
a joyment out of seeing someone submerged in eye.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I genuinely like, short of my immediate family, I don't
know that anyone's looked at me with that much.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Joy as that.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
You just feel this really palpable gratitude and joy and
coming from someone that you admire so much, if like,
it is the most special and one of the greatest
honors of not only my career and my life to
receive the invitation from the Dannahs to be one of
the sliders that But you're right though, in those sort
of moments, you treasure them more though, don't you. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (16:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
And to not have him up there, that's another thing,
because I know, and God willing he's there next year,
that means he's always going to be down And so
when it gets hard, it's when they're you just reminded
about what's happening. You can sort of let it sit
in the background, and each day you've got your new
normal and you know, okay, well, dad's like this, and
this is how we're going to interact with him. He's
(17:11):
a bit tired, he's up and about. You know, it changes.
You just have those sort of reminders where okay, there
is something that's you know, a bit more has changed
and you're just like, wow, okay, got to be focused.
That's our new normal. But that's crap.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
It's hard to be mister positive when yeah, yeah, all
the time, no one can be missed.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
I keep going back like if he's mister positive about this,
like I can't get stuck.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, exactly, I can't get stuck.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Like sometimes I will walk in I was like, oh, yes,
the kids are being a pain, and I'm fine. I'm good.
I'm really good. Actually I'm great, up and about.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yes, you know you said that your dad armed you
with the tools of going right. We're going to do
There's nothing anyone can do, but we're going to do something.
When you started fight M and D in the Big Freeze,
not only did nothing like this exist in Melbourne, nothing
like this existed in earlier or the world. So this
was a concept that was very first conceptualized by you
(18:05):
and this team that are just the most phenomenal people.
Did you ever think that you could possibly just be
walking down the street in any city and see people
donning the beanie which.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Happens to me this morning driving into the studio and
they crossed the street and I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
You watched broadcasts at Opta Stadium and it's more blue
than it is purple.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Or the yellow and golf.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
The big thing is that people will choose to wear
this beanie instead of their team's beanie. Yeah, which you
know what I mean. And that's the cut through. Yeah,
that's the cut through.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
On the Big Freeze day, you don't see Collingwen colors,
you don't see Melbourne colors. No, you just see the
Fighter man d the Big Freeze blue. And that is powerful.
It's so powerful. But I think that just speaks to
the power of the game, like Foot is just so
much more than the marks and disposals and the handbles.
It is this game that can bring you such joy's sorrow.
(19:00):
You connect to you, it can give you an escape
to get away from what's happening, and it just brings
communities together. And what I've learned from the Big Freeze
across that it like it's like hope's contagious. If you
can give someone something to believe on and a way
to act, they can move mountains. And that's what they've proven.
We went into this absolutely not knowing anything about fundraising.
(19:20):
Was I was a roller, Dad was a coach.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
We had a touch on you were a very very
impressive athlete.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
We could have had you on as an athlete full stop.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
There where so obviously rolling and it's such a competitive field.
Did this diagnosis and this shift of purpose change that
path for you at the ripe old age of twenty two?
Speaker 7 (19:40):
Ah?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yes, I just I was on the team and I
like finished the team Australia.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
Yeah, it seems national.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
And I'd been away from home for over six months.
And then about two months before I left, Dad told
me and he's like, oh, I might you know, I
might be lucky to have twenty seven months. I might not.
You know again, we just see where their cards fall.
And I was like, well, I don't want to be
away for six months of that, and you know I
(20:12):
love sportsport is just ingrained in us and it's so
important to us. But for me at that moment, I
found it really challenging to focus all my attention on
improving myself and getting faster and getting stronger and really
putting all at the end of the day. Sport does
have a lot of self because you have to, like
(20:32):
you have to get the best out of yourself to
be able to perform on the top stage. And for
a long time I was driven by that and the
sense of achievement that you get from that. Once Dad
told me what was happening, I lost the passion to
focus on improving myself and I wanted to figure out
how can I help beyond just me. So I was like,
(20:54):
I've been a very driven individual if I do something,
even when I got itch.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Oh, I can pick up on that now by the
fact that you've literally moved mountains.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, Like, I know you're a rower, but I'm pretty
sure you got sturdy shoulders anyway.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Because it a lot, I just wanted to I'm a
person that would throw everything at it, Like I'd choose
one thing and I'd just go crazy for it. So
it was swimming, then it became rowing, and then when
Dad told me this. I was just like, I don't
think I can put one hundred and ten percent focus,
which you have to be at the top level. You
can't think about anything else.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
And rowing into a storm that got.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Yeah, I just I can't put that level attention. And
it's moall than love. I don't have the love, I
don't have the passion because I want to focus on
something else. And so you know, it is always hard
to retire, especially at twenty two to twenty three. But
it was something that I felt very comfortable with at
the end of the day because I had something that
I felt was like a high purpose in a way,
(21:50):
like it was beyond me, and I was very content
to do that.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
Have you ever asked yourself, what if.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Watching the rowing all the time, even watching the footy
and seeing the AFLW girl, Yeah, you're.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
A father daughter waiting Daisy Taylor, who come on? But
I think we all do that now.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
We look at the path, but we also look and
we see that there's forty three thousand people at a Matilda's.
I know only and just go how fantastic the women's sports.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Amount of opportunity to play women's spot at the top
league is so good. I'm looking at my girls growing
up and your opportunities a't real. I'm going to be like,
come on, take me back.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
But it's amazing that you talk about, you know, that
passion and that drive for achievement. I mean, now you
stand and there's one hundred thousand people cheering for you
at one of the biggest sporting stadiums. I mean, it's
not how you would have imagined growing up that you
would have received this sort of love, but the general
love that the higher Australia community has for you and
your family and your dad, genuinely being Australian. Have there
(23:08):
ever been such a unanimous Oh well obviously yeah, I
mean clearly knew.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
How have we not done this? We got to big
phrase eleven without this happening? Come?
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Was that something that? Was that a pinch me moment
for the family.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yes, yeah, we didn't know and we didn't have the
same sort of confidence. Were naturally pessimistic bunch. So we're
just missed a positive pessimistic Yeah exactly exactly, isn't it?
I think for anything around us, Like you know, Dad
never set out to get the accolades. That was never
what he was after and when he was nominated, you
(23:43):
have to accept it. And there was actually a long
period of time where he's like, is this the right thing?
And we're like, we were like, think about what it
will do for a course. You know, He's always driven like,
whatever we can do for fight him and D, that's
what I'm after. And so we were at the awards
ceremony and I think I was on a table with
my family and it was beautiful that we could all
(24:04):
be there, but we were just rocking back and forth,
just stress, heartbeats up, so stressed because I was just like,
you know, even for Dad to get to Canberra was
such a big deal. It was a lot of effort
went to get him up there, and I was just
like so so nervous. And then when they read out
his name was just like these release of emotions and
(24:25):
to see him on the stage and it's just always
when I see Dad smile, unjust that gets me. So
he was up there with this big smile and again
he had this beautiful speech talking about fight M and
D's goal was always to live in a world free
from M and D. People may say it's a dream,
but I don't believe it's an impossible one. And you know,
just he just brings that. It was called the Reverend
(24:48):
when he played was a coach at Melbourne and you
can see that ability of storytelling. He's got still so
much to give. It's really amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Because when he was a coach, Melbourne wasn't necessarily one
of the powerhouse teams. He had to almost recruit people
to get involved, didn't he They were on the.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Bottom of the ladder. Get the new guy from over
in the west. I'm sure he doesn't know what he's
in for.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
But then that kind of mentality though, of battling, right, Yeah,
like that also has to be ingrained, not only within
your dad but within you. And is that something that
you're looking to pass on to the girls now?
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yes, absolutely so. My little Hazel, her middle name is
Gene and that's after my great aunt who lived to
one hundred and four, who lost her husband during the war.
So like along, she was young when she lost her husband.
Independence firecracker. I remember her in her late nineties chasing
me my brother around the backyard. At one hundred. She
(25:48):
went up to get a driver's license, said I don't
need ten years, to just give me five and they
gave her a driver's last she drove every week to
go watch the d's play Like to me, she was
a firecracker five and I was like, that is what
we want to instill. And I am so lucky with
what Dad's doing. He wrote a book and it was
about their learnings. He never expected to really even meet
(26:09):
his grandkids, and now he's met six of them and
he's writing what starters as a letter over achiever went
into a book. But it's a life lessons And I've
learned so much from Dad and I still do every day,
and I really want them to see who Pop was,
what he achieved, what he learned, and more to the
(26:30):
cases like he's a fighter, bit like how he thought
about things like you can everything can be taken away
from you, but your ability to choose your attitude, you can't.
You've got no say in what will happen to you.
You've always got to say in your response. And that
was the leading I think lesson he's taught us. And
it's so powerful that you can walk out something can happen.
(26:53):
You've got a moment to choose which way are you're
going to go, Mister positive or mister negative? And That's
what I want our kids to learn, because if you
can listen to mister positive, you're gonna fight. You're gonna
be a fighter. If you listen to mister negative, you
won't be in the fight.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Yeah, the fight will be over before it's even begun.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
In all honesty, Well, I think the beautiful thing is
now is that people are always going to tell your
kids how amazing your pop was and through of how
vulnerable and your family have been with all of us.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
We feel like we know Neil, and we feel like
we know.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
I feel like I know the smile.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah yeah, and like what a blessing that is to
have someone doing such good.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I have it.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
I have it.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
We like to talk maths on this podcast sometimes because
it is early. No, no, we're not, don't worry. We're just
not your typical sports podcast. We do use phrases like
abacus on here every now and then.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
And I just wanted to kind of look numbers. I'm
going to show myself here.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Numbers can sometimes mean nothing, right, like they're just like
you quite understand them.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
It's difficult to comprehend.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
But one hundred and fifteen million dollars, I think it's
even more than that now, so more than one hundred
and fifty million dollars vi MND has raised. Where does
that go and what does it change?
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Yeah, so when dad was diagnosed, I'll take you back
so we can see what the difference is. When dad
was diagnosed. We a year later, the ice Pocket Challenge
swept across the world and two hundred and twenty million
dollars was raised for M and D, which is incredible.
So we raised a million here and a lot of
the time where my frustrations was because I had some
(28:31):
my dad was going through it. They were calling it als.
I actually had no idea what it was, so it
like sparked a little bit of awareness, but there wasn't much.
And then add onto that, the National Health and Medical
Research Council, we're putting zero point six percent of the
funding pool to M and D research, So we're just like,
there's no treatment, there's no cure. We really have no
funding to be able to change that. And that's there.
(28:54):
All that was happening is really small scale grants because
that's the funding pool you had, and that's not going
to get us where we need to get to.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
So we're getting to change it. The researchers.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
A couple of years in we were trying to get
the first Australian clinical trial here to Australia and when
we were talking to the overseas counterpart, they're like, listen,
that's cute. You're in Australia. Yes, so far away. That's
too hard. We don't want to talk to you like
we're not coming. So well, we'll do it. We'll do
it ourselves. So we started fundraising more and we brought
Now we brought fifteen clinical trials here in Australia, so
(29:28):
we've been able to allow people with MND to be
part of the solution apart to fight back. But more importantly,
we're now the third biggest fun funder in the world
Little Australia, third biggest funder in MD research. And just
last year we had sixty delegates from across the world
come to Australia. They don't like coming here because it
is far away.
Speaker 7 (29:47):
The American Oh, Americans, they're unhappy, so they came here
because they can see what we're doing is all about
disrupting and changing.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
So it's dramatically shifted the land escape. It is such
an impressive number, but it's not there yet, So we
just have to keep going. We can see the changes
that are happening, and we can see the excitement building,
and I can meet these families that are like, Okay,
well there's so much going on. There's lots of talk. Okay,
how can we move it faster? And that's our every
intention is to figure out how can we accelerate that.
(30:21):
But we just have to keep going. I'm just as
a family member, I get frustrated with the process because
I just want to be there tomorrow. I want I
want like the COVID vaccination time.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Level of intensity.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
But I'm pretty sure there was a lot more than
a one hundred and fifteen million that went into that
and a worldwide approach, but you can't sort of focus
on that. I just want to see it accelerate quicker. Yes,
I wish there was a Neil dunherth thirty years ago
so we could have been ahead. But again, the cards,
these are our cards. We're going to take them and
we're going to find a way to use them in
the best possible way.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
And you can't overestimate the power of hope. And that's
what clinical trials give someone to be able to go
well I can't do anything, and MEGA will actually in
Australia is a clinical trial that you can be a
part of. We can't tell you it's going to make
things better, but we're trying exactly and it feels like
a step that people can take and without fundiment defunding
that that doesn't exist, so they do hit a roadblock,
going well, there's nothing I can do but wait.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
To feel like you can be a part of the
difference is incredible.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
It's the control I think that you mentioned at the
start of this chat, like being able to give people
back a sense of that, you know, not really knowing
exactly how effective it's going to be, but just even
that sense of control over your own life is so key.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
And these people are so beautiful. When I speak to them,
it's they're like, Okay, I'm in a clinical control. It
gives me hope. It gives me hope. But sometimes I'm
realistic that I don't I might be getting laid down
and I'm like, Okay, well I don't think it's going
to help me, but I am now part of the solution. Yeah,
I'm a part. What I'm doing is adding value to
(31:55):
our research journey. That is powerful. As well, like I
just think they're just like I am doing something. I'm
fighting back in some way to be told just to
sit back. And Dad was told tick off the bucket
list and he's like, I don't get any joy from that,
Like that is not something that will make me bounce
out of bed. The what lights of fire inside of
(32:16):
him is fighting back, is finding a way to do something,
is taking control of your situation. And that's what clinical
trials can do.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
And we're not done yet. We'd love to be done yet.
We'd love you to be out of a job. We'd
love you to be out there on the picket line
going someone, but we're not there yet.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
But what we do do.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
On this podcast is have fun facts. And I've got
a fun fact for you, Georgie, because there has been
a launch of a virtual beanie and this is a
new concept because d they just don't rest do that.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
They're like, well, don't do it different.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
And we talk about that visual and if you're lucky
enough to be at the MCG on the King's birthday
or was the Queen's birthday match and to look out
and see that sea of blue, it's one of the
most powerful moments for mine in Australian sports. Oh yeah, period,
we're going to do that and we know the power
of social media. Now, as you said, it's still about
awareness and the awareness has gone so far, but we
(33:05):
can always always do more.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
So I think.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
McGrath pink MCG. You're filling it up with the seats,
you can now do the same with a virtual beanie.
So talk us through this concept because it's new and
we're hoping to fill the MCG.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
Yes, so we talk about how M and D doesn't
know bort us, so neither deleet. We don't want to
restrict what we're trying to achieve just to the MCG
because everywhere in Australia there are people impacted or inspired
by the fight. I want to get involved. So this
year we're launching our digital Beanie, which is a fun
way to get involved with the call. So you jump
on to Big Freeze, dot com dot au. You donate
(33:39):
so it's all tax deductible for those that are getting
ready for tax time.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Businesses rude by everyone. How many employees do you have? Deduction?
Capital D deduction?
Speaker 4 (33:53):
And so you donate and in return you get a
digital beanie. You write your name you might write your
family name, you might write the name of someone that's
doing it tough and might not be able to do
it themselves. So it just gives a really fun way
to get involved with the cause. Pop on socials show
that you're backing the cause. We want to say not
just the mcg blue, we want to say social media
go blue as well. So that's what we're really hoping
(34:15):
over the next couple of days if you're able to
people at getting involved in that fun, different, different way
to donate.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
So the beanie you can wear in all weather, oh yeah, oh.
Speaker 5 (34:24):
One hundred, the benie you go weather.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
And it is like again if you watch and again
Neil is doing interviews still and you're again busier than
anyone that we know. So the fact that you found
this time for us this morning, thank you so much.
If you see this and go gee, like how like
what can I do? Pick up the phone?
Speaker 6 (34:45):
Do it?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Donate because if everyone does it, then these clinical trials
can go further. And yes there's a lot of money raised,
but they're still so far to go, and I know
that we're giving the money to the right people. There's
so many causes where you sit back and go, yeah,
but what's actually happening. If ever, you're going to have
confidence that you're supporting something that's going to do everything
(35:07):
they can to make the world better by getting rid
of this awful beasts to fight him and d team oh.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
It is, and beg a little bit of a curly
one for me just to finish this delightful chat. I
mean in a future many many years away, hopefully a
future without your dad, are you still fighting?
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Always? Always? Dad is creating a legacy that will change
the world, and the greatest designer we could do is
to not see that through. So it is up to
all of us to make sure that when the day
comes at our leader is no longer able to lead,
that we pick up the charge and we carry on.
(35:48):
Because this is about people's lives. There is a one
in three hundred chants of someone getting M and D,
So if you're at the MCG, you think about how
many people will get an M and D diagnosis. So
we just have to stop that. We just have to
find a way to close off this beast of a disease.
And that means we've come so far we cannot stop.
We can't stop until there is this eureka moment where
(36:11):
everyone across Australia is celebrating because everyone across Australia, they're
the ones that have made this possible. We talk about
this isn't about one person. We talk about Dad a lot,
but this is not about one person. This is about
the thousands and thousands of people that have taken notice,
bought a beanie, gonna buy a digital beanie, donated. It's
a fundraising like it's the power of people. They can
(36:33):
move mountains. They've made this possible. So I want to
make sure that we are celebrating as a collective because
we would be nowhere if they didn't listen to when
dad said he needed help.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
The Dan and her family, My god, we're right on
the tuch.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
I'm so behind you.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
We speak a lot about your dad and how inspirational
he is. You are one of the most inspirational people
I know and.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
Through all look no deal listeners backs getting like moving.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Around truly because the way that you also you mentioned
you've got a one year old and a three year
old that has also happened through different levels of pregnancy
and sleep through all of this, and again you wouldn't
know because you're always there with a big smile, and
this is a massive organization to be fronting and to
front up time and time again in front of cameras,
in front of all different media. Again, this wasn't your
(37:21):
chosen career path, and yet today you're like going to
speak to this club, going to interview this person. It's
just it's relentless on you and I'm sure it takes
a big toll in your family life too, And we're
just so so grateful for you. And anyone who has
the privilege of being in your presence knows they're in
the presence of just this kind, wonderful, giving person and
we're just you should be so proud of you. I
(37:42):
know you're proud of dad, but we are so immensely
proud of you. And again, your girls will grow up
knowing how great their granddad was, but they're going to
see this powerhouse of a woman who has also moved
mountains love you.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
That's very kind. I say, this is a privilege to
be a part of and to be able to do
this and find an hour outlet for a really difficult
situation and find the positive. So it's a privilege to
be able to do this and to talk to you,
both of you, so thank you so much for inviting
me in today. I was so excited when I got
the call.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Don't be too cold on Monday.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Oh I don't love this slide, but there's a big
fun of me that's like, I don't really want to
be Virginie.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
One of my favorite moments of my life was when
Jelmy told me that she was going to Jesus and
I got so excited because I knew she'd commit one
thousand percent. And then the outfit was impec It was amazing,
but I was like, you know who hates being cold
more than anyone on this planet?
Speaker 3 (38:35):
Dressed for the Arctic in a studio She's got fifteen.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
And as she was going down the thing, I was like,
here we go.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
And as soon as she came out, I was.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Like, cold, so thank you as well.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
We're also grat Oh god, we cannot wait to watch again.
Virtual beanies go online, get your axle beanie out and
wear it. It's cold, particularly if you're Melbourne today, so
it's a perfect day to get it.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
You can get it at Cole's Bunnings and Poles as.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Well Cole's Bunning's Shell Ready express and online at fight
MND dot org dot au. And to be annoying and
throw another website. Of course, the digital beanie head to
Big Freeze. It is Big Freese time, Big Freeze dot
com dot au. You'll be able to get your digital
beanie there. It's a lot of fun. It's such an
easy way to get involved, personalize it, take just do
(39:25):
whatever you want with it. Just don't We've taken out
swear words, so just fair one.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Yeah, she needs another bean be I love you, thanks
so much for coming.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
You so much, guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Actually, Beck before you go, because we have wrapped up
this episode now jell me so until next week, dear
listener
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Be a good sport and help fight MND mald She
nailed it.
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