Publicity

[Doug Carpenter]

There was brief mention on Radio4 this morning that Doddie Weir's foundation has raised over a million pounds for MND.

He has been awarded an OBE for services to rugby and charity.

Doug

[Kayleigh]

Hello Doug,

I hope you have had a great Christmas and that you had a delicious Christmas lunch - hopefully, one of your favourites, the Christmas pud, was particularly enjoyable this year! LOL

Many thanks for letting us know about Doddie Weir being awarded an OBE.

Many congratulations to Doddie!

When I read your post in the morning, I thought that it is not only wonderful that Doddie is being recognised for his services to rugby and significant fundraising but it is also great that the publicity around him receiving an OBE should also raise awareness of MND. After you had heard his name briefly mentioned on the radio, I was looking forward to him being mentioned on the TV news. However, although I expect that he was mentioned on the TV news in Scotland that day, I did not hear his name mentioned on the TV news in England. It is such a shame and disappointing that although other sports stars receiving awards were mentioned, as far as I am aware, Doddie wasn't. Never mind - when he receives his award from the Queen, hopefully Doddie will be wearing one of his wonderful eye-catching suits and this will prompt the news reporters to include him on the TV news in all regions that day!

Very best wishes for the New Year.
Kayleigh x

[Newbie17]

The article below in the Mail on Sunday recently might have been discussed already on this forum, forgive me if that is the case as I have missed it.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-6686799/New-research-shows-playing-level-contact-sport-makes-EIGHT-TIMES-likely-MND.html

The fact that it is on the back page and inside backpages of one of the main Sunday papers is I think fantastic for raising the awareness of MND. The Mail has started a campaign to investigate possible links with MND and sports people involved in impact sports.

I have been an active sports person all my life but have never had a head injury. Nevertheless I have emailed the paper at [email protected] to tell them a little bit about myself and to thank them for their campaign .
I was so pleased to see this article, I’m sure the content will spark a lot of comments.

[Kayleigh]

Thank you for kindly sharing the Mail on Sunday article with us.

As part of the research, I think that it would be good if all people diagnosed with MND were routinely asked if they had regularly played sport in their lifetime, and if so what sports they played. Some people with MND might have played football, rugby, boxing etc regularly but is this data only collected from professional sports people?

My neurologist asked what my profession was, but did not ask if I had participated in any sports regularly. (I would describe myself as being 'non-sporty' - although I used to walk a lot, I have not regularly taken part in sports since I was at school.)

[Jaxx]

My daughter was a competitive swimmer for 8 yrs and trained around 6 times a week!