A brilliant new charity initiative launched in Dublin this week.
Watch Your Back MND, which was set up by singer Roy Taylor and his son Terence, was launched at an MND event at The Shelbourne Hotel.
The aim of Watch You Back MND is to raise awareness and funds for Motor Neurone Disease research.
MND, also know in America as ALS, is a life changing condition that affects a person’s ability to live out a normal life affecting the persons use of limbs, speech and even the most basic ability to breathe.
Roy was a well-known singer on the Irish cabaret scene and represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988 with his band Jump The Gun.
Almost thirty years to the day of taking to the famed Eurovision stage Roy was given the diagnosis of MND.
“I could have rolled into a ball or rolled up my sleeves to do something about it and the latter is what I decided to do,” Roy said of his diagnosis.
And Roy’s son, Terence, has been key in encouraging his father
He said:
“Dad has written and recorded a big band swing song to spread positivity and to show the true levels of optimism that now exists about beating this dreadful disease.
“He has done this with the help of the MND Assassins Big Band and we believe this is a world first for someone fighting the MND battle”.
You can watch the music video for Watch Your Back MND below.
The first fundraiser for Watch Your Back MND could not be more apt.
Olympic champion and Boxing World Champion Katie Taylor has donated her fight worn gloves from her professional US debut in 2017.
The gloves are a very special piece of sporting history to help KO MND and the €5,000 raised by Watch You Back MND is being donated to Research Motor Neurone, a world leading MND research group led by Prof Orla Hardiman at Trinity College.
At present only 8 per cent of MND patients in Ireland are eligible for trials – and both Roy and Terence believe this needs to change.
“It costs €18,000 to put just one patient on an upcoming MND trial, our aim is to try and raise as much money as possible to get as many people as possible onto trials that hopefully can improve their quality of life and give us real insights into how to beat this terrible disease,” Terence said.
