MND Research Fundraiser

My name is Geri and I only have 6-8 months left to live.

I have advanced Motor Neurone disease.

Every day my body gets weaker and my muscles waste away. My hands no longer work, I need help daily to dress and bathe myself and can no longer eat solid foods as my capacity to swallow has declined. Luckily my capacity to drink red wine has not!

I pray to god every day to keep my speech for as long as possible. The day I can’t breathe on my own is the day I go into hospice where I will be put on a ventilator waiting out my final days in the sun with red lips and red painted toe nails listening to my ipod with my favourite tunes.

I’m not asking for help for myself, but for the next Kiwi that will get this debilitating and fast progressing disease. Only 100 Kiwi’s are diagnosed with MND each year so little is known how to help sufferers like myself.

I started to notice symptoms at just 51 years old when I tripped and fell and broke my nose due to left side weakness.

I was misdiagnosed with a stroke, the medical practitioners said it was a psychological problem telling me to go to the gym and lose weight and see a councillor. This depleted my muscle tone even quicker.

I took up squatter’s rights at Middlemore hospital neurology department and begged they gave me an EMG test as my nursing background made me feel that it was my central nervous system was letting me down. Unfortunately I was right.

In New Zealand there are around 300 people living with MND with 2 new people diagnosed each week yet we know nothing about it.

I have no fear of death, just the fear of the suffering of others.

The only way I can help others now is to donate my Brain to the Greenlane Brain Bank and my body to the University so they can understand the progression of the disease. You too can help by donating on this page to generate funds to help the charity MND NZ improve their knowledge and to reduce the suffering of the next person.

Thank you x