Family deals with MND
Trip to US tops dad’s wishlist
MARK Andrews was at home waiting for the weather to dry up so he could return to work when his words started slurring.
A week later the tradie was in hospital and delivered lifechanging news: he had less than three years left to live. Probably closer to two.
Mark had just been formally diagnosed with motor neurone disease, a fatal condition with no known cure. The disease affects the nerve cells, which eventually causes muscles to weaken.
Two months on, his family want to tick off the one thing he wants to do the most – visit America with wife Dionne and children Maddi, 17, Amelia, 14, Alana, 12, and Billi, 10.
He wants to take them to Disneyland and watch Amelia play basketball in July next year. Dionne said she hoped her husband would still be well enough to travel to the US by then. If not, she would stay at home with him.
“He’s still independent, but that will eventually deteriorate,” she said, adding it was difficult for him to communicate. “He can walk, but only short distances, so we'll have to organise a wheelchair (soon).”
The family is hoping a Go Fund Me page pegged to raise $10,000 will help it achieve Mark’s dream.
Dionne said the family was trying to stay positive. They went all out for his 50th birthday in October, conscious it could be his last. Mark takes medication that slows the disease slightly. It may give him an extra three to six months.
The family want to save up for a hospital bed and an electric scooter so he can remain mobile when he eventually deteriorates, which could be in as little as six months.
Dionne still wants to renovate their Currumbin home. She said they had purchased the multiple split-level home to remodel as their own, but everything was outdated.
She wants to ensure it is “home” for Mark as that is where he now spends most of his time – apart from hospital.
The family only moved to the Gold Coast this year.
“For the last five years he was always saying to us how good the weather was on the Gold Coast,” Dionne said. “I’d been upskilling nursing at university and we finally decided to go. The kids were ready. It’s been horrible instead.”
Dionne first met Mark in Victoria through her friends, who described him as a “cool” red-haired fella. They married a few years later.
“I’ve been nursing for 20 years and I’ve been in palliative care for eight years. I’ve always looked after them so they leave peacefully. What have I done wrong?”