Doddie Weir exclusive
‘I am humbled to be receiving BBC’S Helen Rollason award’
Receiving any award is very special, but to be honoured with the Helen Rollason Award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year tomorrow is unbelievably humbling and slightly terrifying.
My comfort zone begins and ends around the farm. I am already panicking at the prospect of standing up in front of these superstars while trying not to make an idiot of myself. Maybe part of that feeling is that I do not believe I truly deserve this award. I remember watching Spoty last year when Billy Monger, the racing driver, received it, and the year before with Bradley Lowery. They were both incredibly inspirational human beings.
I do not see myself that way. My driving goal has always been to look after myself and try to stay alive. That is not in a selfish way, but in looking at the fact there is no cure for motor neurone disease and saying: “Let’s get it sorted and bang a few drums.”
My drive is personal, but it is the collective spirit of people working together that is special. There are hundreds of people who have chipped in, raising money in the fight against MND, including Rob Wainwright doing the Doddie Gump cycling from Murrayfield to Twickenham, farmers selling their sheep, schools selling toast and John Davidson, who has just set off rowing across the Atlantic. He does not even like rowing! If it were not for all the lovely people doing all these lovely things I would not be involved in any awards. I have to dedicate this to them.
It is through their efforts that we have invested just under £5million into MND research and donated around £800,000 in grants to people within the MND community. Through that funding, I am delighted to announce that the first major MND trials in this country for a generation will commence next year.
There are people far smarter than me who can explain all the science but, needless to say, it is incredibly exciting. In one of the experiments, they injected a zebrafish with the disease and it pretty much stopped. Then they injected it with a drug and it swam away again. Obviously there is a difference between a zebrafish and a big old lump like me, but that is what gives you hope.
I suspect everyone with MND in the UK has got a smile on their face this Christmas because finally something is being done.
Another little win we have racked up is ensuring MND patients get blue parking badges straight away. Before they had to go through a vetting procedure, complete lots of forms and that whole process might take eight or nine months. By that time, some people might not be around. It is four years since I was diagnosed with MND and I know how lucky I am to be here and still enjoying a reasonable level of independence.
The recent BBC documentary filmed by my great mate John Beattie gave me a lot of encouragement. When I look back 12 months, there really has not been that much change.
I know I am losing some function in my arms and hands, so I will need help with things such as dressing, showering and shaving. The kids in the morning might put my Weetabix on a plate for me, but I can still eat it by myself. It is opening the packet that I would find really difficult. I probably could do it, but I have to be prepared to ask for help when I need it. My biggest issue is I have got to remember I have an issue.
Gary Armstrong and I went to a rugby reunion in Edinburgh the other day. When we got there he said: “Let’s take the lift,” and I said: “No, I want to do the stairs”. About five stairs from the top, I did not lift my feet high enough and tripped. Luckily Gary caught me before I landed flat on my face. When he was trying to pick me up, everyone was thinking I was this drunken idiot who cannot get upstairs. That might have been true later on, but this was 9am.
The most important thing from my perspective is that I get to spend another Christmas with my family. We will be going to my brother’s farm. He is quite a grumpy sort, so I am already looking forward to drinking some of his booze and getting stuck in to his food. Christmas has always seemed like the most important milestone. We have done four now and I have cherished each one.
We have got a couple more big milestones coming up. I am turning 50 in July and then, in 2021, there is the Lions tour to South Africa, where I played all those years ago.
With any luck, we will have found a cure by then.
Christmas is the most important milestone. We have done four now and I have cherished each one