Weir calls for fast-tracking of MND cure
Rugby legend Doddie Weir says politicians and scientists should fast-track a cure for motor neurone disease like they did with a Covid-19 vaccine.
The former Scotland and Lions hero was diagnosed with the muscle-wasting condition at Christmas 2016 and revealed his battle six months later when he launched a fundraising drive to support research into the cruel disease.
The 51-year-old has since raised more than £6 million for research and drug development through his My Name'5 Doddie Foundation charity which has also provided £1 million of support to those living with the illness.
Doddie, who was given just 18 months to live after being diagnosed, said: "Before Covid, it took years to get a drug to market. We should use the success of how quickly the vaccines were created to find a cure for MND.
"The big difference is, everyone in Scotland has the potential to get Covid but maybe only 500 people will get MND, and we need to change that thinking.
"I would ask both the Scottish and UK Governments to now take the hope created by the vaccines on to MND."
MND kills a third of people within a year and more than half within two years of diagnosis. The degenerative condition occurs when specialist nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord stop functioning properly.
Doddie, who resides at his farm in the Borders, revealed he had recently expressed his frustration to scientists about how long the process of finding a successful treatment has been taking.
"I do enjoy challenging the professors and have asked some of them what is it that
they have been doing for the past 30 years," said Doddie.
"Last month I said to one that they had told me there would be a difference within five years - but I told them that was three years ago now, so
they have only two years left to do it and people with MND don't have a lot of time.
"What our foundation has done is bring top people in the UK together and challenge them. We have made quite a bit of difference into what the scientists think." "I have had more injuries through MND than I ever had with rugby," he added.