Story

Hope and resilience: Navigating life with MND

Published: 17 December 2025

By Elizabeth Abrahams

I started to notice something was up while playing soccer in 2022. I was at a new club and I just felt sluggish, and thought it was because they put me in defence, which wasn’t my preferred position. But hiking throughout the next year also became increasingly challenging.

When I fell over at Christmas in 2023 while playing cricket with the kids I knew something was wrong. The message just didn’t get to my leg that I wanted to run. That’s when I really began to worry.

Diagnosing MND can be quite a lengthy journey. Thankfully for me, I received my diagnosis in the space of three months, when I was 37 years old.

I flew to Sydney from my home in Perth to see a specialist, Professor Dominique Rowe, to help expedite the process, and also saw the team at the local MND clinic.

I remember sitting in a small room in the hospital after having tests conducted, my daughter waiting for me in the waiting room, and the doctor said to me, ‘It’s not good’. It wasn’t my life that flashed before my eyes, it was my three children's.

I thought of everything that I knew I was going to miss out on: watching them grow, pursuing their dreams, being there to support them when they needed. I was a wreck for a good while after that, grappling with the reality that my life will be cut short.

It was made worse after the sudden passing of my mum, my biggest support and best friend, only three weeks later, and then a marriage breakdown.

Adapting is a word that is thrown around a lot in the MND community, especially for the newly diagnosed. It isn’t easy at the start, almost incomprehensible.

But life can be really rich when faced with the reality of our immortality. I’m lucky in a sense that I seem to be slowly progressing.

Eighteen months in I am still completely mobile and independent, but a lot slower than I used to be. The fatigue is difficult to manage, it doesn't help that I'm a notorious night owl, but I allow myself the down days to recoup.

Life is continuing on as normally as possible, though I have had to step back significantly from a job that I love at Bunnings and change roles to something less physical.

I’ve had to give up a lot, including running, which was like therapy to me. I can’t climb up the ladder to my daughter’s bed and kiss her head while she’s sleeping, or participate in the parent’s versus children match at her local soccer club.

But I’m still here and I’m still able to experience everything I was able to before, albeit a little differently.

I’ve joined an amazing group, Break the Boundary, that offers mountain biking and hiking to those with disabilities. I have a scooter to allow me to get out onto the trails with the kids.

In the days after my diagnosis; I had the realisation that I have never lost someone truly close to me. And that kind of brought me some comfort, that I would leave this world having loved so hard without ever feeling true heartbreak … until I lost Mum and my world shattered for the second time in a matter of weeks.

But her passing showed me just how fragile life is, that it can be gone in an instant, with no chance to say goodbye.

What I am facing is so horrendous, but I have a unique opportunity to ensure that I remain present in my children’s lives and special occasions. It’s a daily reminder to make the most of every moment.

MND hasn’t had many breakthroughs, treatments are scarce, and those that are available have varying results. None of them are a cure.

I’m grateful that organisations like MND Australia, their state associations and Fight MND have helped keep MND in the public arena for many years here in Australia now.

There isn’t a lot of hope for an individual when given this diagnosis, but hope is what we need, and these organisations help keep it alive. I encourage people to donate to MND Australia to help fund crucial research and ultimately help find a cure.

Read more stories about life with MND and the research to develop new treatments in the latest edition of Momentum.

This article was originally published in the Herald Sun on Tuesday, 14 October 2025.