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.
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.
Carl Webb was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played as a prop, second-row and lock in the 2000s and 2010s.
Leonard Johnrose was an English professional footballer who played for clubs including Burnley, Bury and Swansea City. He was a defensive midfielder.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated trauma to the head. The encephalopathy symptoms can include behavioral problems, mood problems, and problems with thinking. The disease often gets worse over time and can result in dementia.
The Motor Neurone Disease Association focuses on improving access to care, research and campaigning for those people living with or affected by motor neurone disease (MND) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. MND is also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or, in the United States, Lou Gehrig's disease.
Kenneth Alexander Mitchell was a Canadian actor. He was known for his role as Eric Green in the CBS television series Jericho (2006–2008) and for portraying various characters in Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2021). In film, he appeared as Ralph Cox in the sports biopic Miracle (2004) and as Joseph Danvers in Captain Marvel (2019).
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.
Jason Peter Bowen is a Welsh former international footballer. During his career, he made over 500 league appearances and was capped twice by Wales in a career which started at Swansea City. He made over 100 league appearances for the club and played in their 1994 Football League Trophy final victory over Huddersfield Town. In 1995, he was sold to Birmingham City for £350,000.
Paul Kevin Turner was an American professional football player who was a fullback for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles. He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Turner died after a multi-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which had been triggered by chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Stephen Mark Darby is an English former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Darby represented England at under-19 level. He began his career playing on the winning side of the Liverpool FA Youth Cup in 2006 and played competitively for Liverpool from 2008 to 2012. Darby then joined the Bradford team that reached the 2013 Football League Cup final, making over 200 appearances for the club and captaining the side for two seasons. Although he afterwards signed a two-year contract with Bolton Wanderers in 2017, Darby retired from his career just over a year later at the age of 29 after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
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.
Edward Nicholas Slater is a former English rugby union player who played at lock.
Events from the year 1970 in Scotland.
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.
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.
The Motor Neurone Disease New Zealand Charitable Trust (MNDNZ) is an organisation that focuses on improving access to care, research and campaigning for those people living with or affected by motor neurone disease (MND) in New Zealand. MND is also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or, in the United States, Lou Gehrig's Disease. MNDNZ is the only national charity in New Zealand that promotes research into the disease and provides support for people affected by MND.
