Courage in the face of adversity nets Weir a BBC sports award
Rugby legend’s MND fight and charity work sees him receive the Helen Rollason Award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, writes Jody Harrison
FORMER Scotland rugby international Doddie Weir has campaigned tirelessly for charity despite living under the “death sentence” of a Motor Neurone Disease (MND) diagnosis.
He has been a vocal advocate for more research into the condition and has raised thousands of pounds to help others who have the disease.
Now the 48-year-old is to receive the Helen Rollason Award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year night in recognition of the campaign he continues to spearhead almost four years after he was told he would likely die from MND.
The award recognises outstanding achievement in the face of adversity and was introduced to the show in 1999 in memory of BBC Sport journalist and presenter Rollason, who died from cancer that year, aged 43.
Previous winners of the award include Hillsborough disaster campaigner Anne Williams and charity marathon runner Ben Smith.
In 2016, Weir was told he would be in a wheelchair within a year after learning he was suffering from MND, setting him of on his quest to raise awareness of the disease.
MND is a complex condition that affects people differently and progresses at different rates. Weir has said he is living with “slow, progressive” MND, and that he had already lived longer than the average survival rate for sufferers, which is three years.
After receiving the diagnosis, he set up the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, which has committed more than £4 million for research into the disease. The foundation has also given almost £1m to families with the condition, to help them live as full a life as possible.
Weir this year received an OBE for his services to rugby, MND research and the Borders community.
His foundation was established in response to Weir’s frustration at the lack of options given to MND sufferers.
With this as his driving force, Weir and his foundation regularly engages with leading neuroscientists, professors and medical researchers to better understand the disease and work towards finding a cure.
He has previously spoken of his frustration with efforts to develop a cure or new medicine to combat the progress of MND through the body, saying it has been 25 years since a new drug was released. He said: “When you’ve been told you have MND, that’s your death sentence because there’s nothing out there to help and give you a chance.
“There’s not even any pathways. When you’re told you’ve got MND, you go home and you go and Google on the computer how to try and rectify your issue on how to stay alive.
“It’s a bit like you’ve got a broken arm and you’re sent home to fix it yourself, but with MND it’s a much more serious condition because it’s a terminal condition.
“No-one’s actually beaten MND to date, and that’s my annoyance – that the powers-that-be have done nothing over the last 25 years plus to bring any extra sort of drugs or help to the table.
“So there is no platform or pathway that helps. Every patient has to look at their self cure.”
During his playing career, the Edinburgh-born star represented the British and Irish Lions on their successful tour to South Africa in 1997 and earned 61 caps for Scotland. A hugely talented lock forward, he retired from the game in 2004.
As a warm-up for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, which takes place in Aberdeen this Sunday, the documentary Doddie Weir: One More
Try will be shown again on BBC1 today at 1.15pm. The film follows him as he and his family comes to terms with his diagnosis and includes the moment he received his OBE from the Queen.
The sportsman said: “I am honoured and humbled to receive the Helen Rollason Award at this year’s Sports Personality of the Year, especially when I look back at the remarkable individuals who have been recognised over the years.
“My family and I are very much looking forward to attending the awards evening and celebrating another fantastic sporting year with friends and many of our sporting heroes.”
I am honoured and humbled to receive the award at this year’s Sports Personality of the Year