Sudden weakness at the gym, muscle cramps and twitches affecting only his arms were the first signs for Mike O\u2019Hehir that something was wrong.<\/p>\n
His failing body came as a shock to the former marathon runner, hiker and Sydney father-of-two, then in his late 60s.<\/p>\n
Concerned, he visited a neurologist who assured him what he was experiencing was just the latest in a string of complications from an old surfing injury.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cGo away and do pilates,\u201d was the takeaway, So, much relieved, he took the advice on board.<\/p>\n But over the following 12 months, Mr O\u2019Hehir continued to grow weaker. The problem gnawed at him until he felt his only option was to seek a second opinion.<\/p>\n After one look at his results, the specialist told him: \u201cI\u2019m sorry, it\u2019s motor neurone disease. You\u2019ve got three years. Maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking back, it was a \u201cpretty awful Christmas present\u201d, Mr O\u2019Hehir told AAP.<\/p>\n Dubbed \u201cthe beast\u201d by former Australian of the Year Neale Daniher AO, the disease gradually kills the nerve cells responsible for muscle movement.<\/p>\n Patients gradually lose their ability to walk, talk, swallow and breathe.<\/p>\n About 2800 Australians live with it, while two are diagnosed with it each day and another two die.<\/p>\n There is no known cure and treatment options are limited, underlining the importance of pioneering research and clinical trials.<\/p>\n University of Wollongong\u2019s Dr Alexander Mason is spearheading one such effort.<\/p>\n His research team plans to grow miniature, cellular models of the human spinal cord to chart how the disease spreads throughout the body.<\/p>\n The models will mirror the complexity of real spinal cords, allowing researchers to study MND at a level of detail not possible in living patients or via existing research.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important for understanding the disease to look at the connection between different motor neurons and how the disease spreads between different regions,\u201d Dr Mason said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something we currently can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can arrest that spread or halt it, then you potentially prolong that person\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n Funded by MND Australia, Dr Mason\u2019s work could allow researchers to observe how treatments interact with the disease in microscopic detail.<\/p>\n \u201cThe platform can help researchers prioritise the most promising drug targets and therapies earlier,\u201d project collaborator Dr Dzung Do-Ha said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a direct treatment for people with MND but it\u2019s an important step toward more precise and targeted research that could ultimately shorten the time it takes to develop effective therapies.\u201d<\/p>\n While the research does not promise a cure and success is not guaranteed but for patients like Mr O\u2019Hehir, it\u2019s a welcome sign science is searching for new ways to understand the disease.\u201cI hold out big hope that research will find an answer because it\u2019s such a difficult disease,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been six years since he was told he had half as many to live, meaning the 75-year-old continues to defy the odds.<\/p>\n While MND does not yet seem to have spread beyond his arms, fighting it is a daily struggle.<\/p>\n Driving a car, turning a tap, reaching above chest height and carrying a cup of tea or glass of wine are some of the small luxuries Mr O\u2019Hehir can no longer enjoy.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a burden he shares with his wife, Gai, who has developed a strained tendon in her hand from taking over the heavy lifting he would otherwise do.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the thing I really hate,\u201d Mr O\u2019Hehir said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt must wear on her,\u201d he said. \u201cI know it does.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sudden weakness at the gym, muscle cramps and twitches affecting only his arms were the first signs for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137,6213],"class_list":{"0":"post-510750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-society"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}