Samarras Fight against MND!

Samarra dedicates a lot of her time to charities and is still involved in organising many amazing events on the West Coast, she has been heavily involved in rugby league clubs on the coast, equestrian and RDA and also dedicating time to kids from troubled homes and lives.

Unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with MND and she has already had to stop work so we are raising money to help her and her family, Matt, Kaytee and Jimmy out at this difficult time.

Motor neurone disease is a rare condition that progressively damages parts of the nervous system. This leads to muscle weakness, often with visible wasting.

Motor neurone disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), occurs when specialist nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord called motor neurones stop working properly. This is known as neurodegeneration.

Motor neurones control important muscle activity, such as:

gripping

walking

speaking

swallowing

breathing

As the condition progresses, people with motor neurone disease will find some or all of these activities increasingly difficult. Eventually, they may become impossible.

It's not clear what causes motor neurones to stop working properly. In about 5% of cases, there's a family history of either motor neurone disease or a related condition called frontotemporal dementia. This is known as familial motor neurone disease. In most of these cases, faulty genes have been identified as making a major contribution to the development of the condition.

There's no single test to diagnose motor neurone disease and diagnosis is based mainly on the opinion of a brain and nervous system specialist (a neurologist). The diagnosis of motor neurone disease is usually clear to an experienced neurologist, but sometimes specialised tests are needed to rule out other conditions with similar features.