Friendship has driven Julie Baird to raise $27,000 and counting to find effective treatments for motor neurone disease.
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The Maiden Gully Cafe owner began spearheading efforts after friend Les Keene was diagnosed with MND earlier this year.
They have been friends ever since Mrs Baird opened the cafe three years ago.
“I liked to support the local milk bar and when I would come in we would get to talking,” Mr Keene said.
Mr Keene and his wife Helen used to own a Bendigo cafe and the pair were soon helping Mrs Keene on the weekends, minding the shop so its owner could watch her sons play footy.
“Les helped me out with lots and lots of things because he has that business experience. He was so knowledgeable,” Mrs Baird said.
Mr Keene was on an off-road motoring trip to Cape York last June when he started to notice something was not right.
He would lose his breath easily, for example, and his right foot would drop unexpectedly. Every person with MND experiences different symptoms and it was not until last February that doctors eliminated other possible conditions and gave a final diagnosis.
Mr Keene is not the only friend Mrs Baird has with MND. Others include two from Donald and one from Brichip who recently passed away.
“I just want to help, somehow,” she said.
In October Mrs Baird will be one of 400 people hitting the road for Daniher’s Drive.
The event is being organised by FightMND, whose co-founder is former AFL player and coach Neale Daniher.
The 2018 Daniher’s Drive starts in Melbourne in October and over four days will wind through Victoria and into South Australia before returning to where it started.
Before the trip starts, participants have to raise a minimum $5000 to find effective treatments and, ultimately, a cure for MND.
“That’s why I’m trying to the money, because there is absolutely nothing they (doctors) can do. With cancer you have radiation, for example. With MND there is nothing,” Mrs Baird said.
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Mrs Baird has already smashed her fundraising goal and hopes to raise another $10 to $15,000 next Friday at an event at the Bendigo Golf Club.
The day will begin with 17 people sliding into a pool for a Big Freeze. Then 100 golfers tee off, followed by an auction, prizes and a meal.
Funds raised so far have come from mini-lotteries, a movie day, Mothers Day and Fathers Day raffles as well as sponsorships for the golf day.
For more information on next Friday’s event and to donate to her Daniher’s Drive push visit the Maiden Gully Cafe Facebook page.
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