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Motor neuron diseases or motor neurone diseases (MNDs) are a group of rare neurodegenerative disorders that selectively affect motor neurons, the cells which control voluntary muscles of the body. They include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), progressive bulbar palsy (PBP), pseudobulbar palsy, progressive muscular atrophy (PMA), primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and monomelic amyotrophy (MMA), as well as some rarer variants resembling ALS.
George Wilson "Doddie" Weir was a Scottish rugby union player who played as a lock. He made 61 international appearances for the Scotland national team and represented the British & Irish Lions.
Joost van der Westhuizen was a South African professional rugby union player who made 89 appearances in test matches for the national team, scoring 38 tries. He mostly played as a scrum-half and participated in three Rugby World Cups, most notably in the 1995 tournament, which was won by South Africa. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest scrumhalves in the history of this sport.
Kevin Sinfield is an English rugby union coach, currently the skills and kicking coach for the England national team. He is a former professional rugby league player for Leeds Rhinos, England and Great Britain. His usual position was loose forward, although he played stand-off and hooker on occasion.
Neale Francis Daniher is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was later the coach of the Melbourne Football Club between 1998 and 2007, and also held coaching positions with Essendon, Fremantle and West Coast. His brothers, Terry, Anthony and Chris, also played for Essendon. Daniher was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2013 and is now known as a prominent campaigner for medical research.
Robert Geoffrey Burrow was an English professional rugby league footballer who played as a scrum-half or hooker. Burrow spent his entire professional career with the Leeds Rhinos, making nearly 500 appearances as well as representing Great Britain, England, and Yorkshire.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD) in the United States, is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and lower motor neurons that normally control voluntary muscle contraction. ALS is the most common form of the motor neuron diseases. ALS often presents in its early stages with gradual muscle stiffness, twitches, weakness, and wasting. Motor neuron loss typically continues until the abilities to eat, speak, move, and, lastly, breathe are all lost. While only 15% of people with ALS also fully develop frontotemporal dementia, an estimated 50% face at least some minor difficulties with thinking and behavior. Depending on which of the aforementioned symptoms develops first, ALS is classified as limb-onset or bulbar-onset.
Sigma Films is a film production company based in Glasgow, Scotland. The company was formed in 1996 by Gillian Berrie, David Mackenzie and Alastair Mackenzie – a producer, director and actor respectively. Over the last twenty years the company has been responsible for film releases including Starred Up (2013), Under the Skin (2013), Perfect Sense (2011), Hallam Foe (2007), Red Road (2006), Young Adam (2003) and Dear Frankie (2004). In 2017, Sigma began production on big-budget historical epic Outlaw King for Netflix.
Peter Gerard is a film director, film producer and film distributor. Gerard founded Accidental Media and Distrify, and is currently employed at Vimeo.
Ardrossan Academy is a Scottish secondary school, opened in October 1882, serving Ardrossan, with pupils also coming from nearby Saltcoats, West Kilbride, Seamill, Fairlie, Largs and other areas.
Katie Morag is the television adaptation of the series of books by Mairi Hedderwick. The programmes follow the adventures of Katie Morag whose life on the fictional Scottish island of Struay is full of stories of jealousy, bravery and rivalry and peopled by an annoying little brother, busy shopkeeper parents, a perfectly perfect best friend and a couple of grandmothers who between them know everything about everything. The series was produced by Move On Up with support from BBC Scotland and commissioned by the BBC's CBeebies and CBBC channels. It also airs on the BBC's Gaelic channel BBC Alba and BBC One Scotland. Don Coutts directed the series which Margaret Matheson produced and Lindy Cameron executive produced and edited. Katie Morag is also available on BBC iPlayer for over a year.
The Euan MacDonald Centre is a research centre which is part of the University of Edinburgh. The centre was established in 2007 and seeks to improve the lives of patients with motor neurone disease (MND). The centre was part funded by a donation by Euan MacDonald, who was diagnosed with MND in 2003, and his father Donald MacDonald. In addition to conducting research, the centre also offers clinical treatments. Around 130 are diagnosed with MND each year in Scotland alone.
Gordon Lewis Aikman BEM was a Scottish political researcher and campaigner. He was Director of Research for the Better Together campaign during the Scottish Independence Referendum. During that campaign he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Aikman successfully lobbied the Scottish Government to double the number of MND nurses in Scotland, and to fund them via the NHS. He also raised more than £500,000 for medical research.
Euan James Stuart MacDonald MBE was a Scottish businessman. He studied at the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh. MacDonald was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in October 2003.
Cedric Thorpe Davie OBE was a musician and composer, most notably of film scores such as The Green Man in 1956. A high proportion of his film and documentary music and his concert pieces have a Scottish theme.
Justin John Yerbury was an Australian molecular biologist who was spurred to follow a career in biological research when he discovered that his family has the genetic form of motor neurone disease (MND). He held the position of Professor in Neurodegenerative Disease at the University of Wollongong. He was diagnosed with MND himself in 2016, but continued to research until his death from the disease in 2023.
Simon Fitzmaurice was an Irish filmmaker. A resident of Greystones, County Wicklow, Fitzmaurice published a memoir titled It's Not Yet Dark in 2014 about his experience with motor neurone disease. He directed My Name Is Emily while living with the condition in 2015.
The Doddie Weir Cup is a perpetual rugby union trophy established in 2018 and contested between Scotland and Wales. The cup is named after the former Scotland international lock Doddie Weir who was diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 2016, and was created to raise awareness of the illness.
Emma Vulin is an Australian politician. She has been a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since November 2022, representing the seat of Pakenham.
Emma Louise Scotter is a New Zealand academic neuropharmacologist, and is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland, and head of the university's Centre for Brain Research. In 2024 she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Motor Neuron Disease research.
References
- ↑ Davie, Emma; McKinnon, Morag (2013-09-06), I Am Breathing , retrieved 2016-10-21
- ↑ Davie, Emma; McKinnon, Morag (2013-09-06), I Am Breathing , retrieved 2016-10-21
- ↑ "VoD service Distrify to boost I Am Breathing rollout" . Retrieved 2016-10-21.
- ↑ "I Am Breathing - All 4". www.channel4.com. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
- ↑ I Am Breathing , retrieved 2016-10-21
- ↑ Schobert, Christopher (5 September 2013). "Review: 'I Am Breathing' Is A Genuinely Inspirational Documentary On One Man's Last Days | IndieWire". www.indiewire.com. Retrieved 2016-10-21.