Increasing awareness of motor neuron disease

OVER the last few months, great strides have taken place in raising awareness about motor neuron disease (MND) in South Africa. This may be attributed, in part, to the fact that high profile rugby players such as Joost van der Westhuizen and Tinus Linee have gone public with their battles against the disease, and also because of the Ice Bucket Challenge that hit our shores earlier in the year and which was so widely publicised by your newspaper.

The Motor Neuron Disease Association of South Africa (MNDASA) is a national organisation dedicated to raising awareness and providing care for people with MND and their families across South Africa. Through your newspaper, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you, the people of the media and the public of the Eastern Cape for the unbelievable support given to the organisation (and hence its patients) over the last few months, both in assistance terms and in monetary terms.

With your assistance, we are able to increase our support levels and, for the first time in the history of the disease in South Africa, will be able to support research projects at a dedicated centre to be established at Tygerberg and Groote Schuur hospitals in Cape Town. We would also like to advise the public of personnel moves initiated by the association in our Eastern Cape division.

We would like to introduce our team, consisting of Sheila Kendal (also the vice-chairwoman of the association), and a selected group of qualified palliative care nurses and social workers from Port Elizabeth's St Francis Hospice.

Sheila, who is professionally trained and has more than 20 years of experience in the field of MND, recently moved from the Western Cape, and will now run our activities in both the Eastern and Southern Cape. More than ever before, the MNDASA is in a position to be able to provide MND patients in the Eastern and Southern Cape with care, equipment, support groups and home visits.

Sheila is contactable on 072-326-4477 and St Francis Hospice on (041) 360-7070.

There is still much to do and we look forward to our continuing mutually beneficial relationship.

Dr Franclo Henning, chairperson, MNDSA, and senior neurologist, Tygerberg Hospital and Stellenbosch University