Faced with the greatest fight of his life, football great and MND
sufferer, Neale Daniher, shows us how to live well and make every day
count.
"A wise man said, 'Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be
lived forwards.'I understand the wisdom of this--right now, I don't have
much 'forwards' left."
Neale Daniher sat down to pen a letter to the grandchildren he'll never
get to know. And then he kept on writing . . .
In 2013, the AFL legend was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease--a
cruel and incurable condition. He had a choice. He could spend his
remaining time focused on himself, or he could seize the opportunity to
make a better future for others. Neale is no stranger to challenge. He
grew up on a farm in remote New South Wales, the third of 11 children.
He battled injury during his football career with Essendon, then jumped
on the coaching rollercoaster, leading Melbourne for a decade. As
general manager of football operations, he was part of the West Coast
Eagles' cultural rebuild. From the hard-won wisdom of life on the land
and the love of his family, to the triumphs and gutting lows of elite
football, Neale has learnt to make the most of the cards he's been
dealt--to always live with purpose and to appreciate what he has. True
to form, Neale chose to stare down the disease he calls "The Beast," and
in 2014 he co-founded FightMND, an organization that has since invested
over $40 million into research and care initiatives. In 2015, he became
the public face of the foundation's biggest fundraising event, The Big
Freeze. When All is Said & Done is a book of stories and wisdom from a
man who has always held his beliefs to the Bunsen burner of life. Neale
is unflinchingly honest, sharing a timely reminder that, even though
life doesn't promise to be fair, we all have the power to choose how to
make our time on this earth matter.
