Former Wallaby Nathan Charles has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.<\/p>\n
Sydney-born Charles, 37, represented the Wallabies in four Tests in 2014 and 2015 and also played in the Super Rugby competition for Western Force and Melbourne Rebels.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last few weeks I have been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, which has been extremely challenging and overwhelming \u2026 and just at times quite cruel,\u201d Charles told Stan Sport.<\/p>\n
MND is a life-shortening neurological condition that affects the nerves controlling movement. It causes progressive muscle weakness and can affect a person\u2019s ability to walk, talk, eat, drink and breathe.<\/p>\n
NRL star Jai Arrow, 31, was this year diagnosed with MND, while former AFL player and coach Neale Daniher died in May aged 65 after a 13-year battle with the disease.<\/p>\n
Charles said he knew there was \u201cno cure\u201d for MND.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour physicality, your body deteriorates and your life cuts short,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m already greatly impacted by it. I\u2019m getting around with mobility aids. I struggle to do a lot of daily tasks, and putting on shoes and socks and stuff like that is a bit of a challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to have my ups and downs.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first health battle for Charles, who at three months old was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and was reportedly not expected to live past the age of 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was born with a life-threatening illness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve given that a red-hot crack and now this other thing comes along. I find it quite ironic that something else would strike me down rather than what I\u2019ve sort of been dealing with my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Charles financially.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Wallaby Nathan Charles has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Sydney-born Charles, 37, represented the Wallabies in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[407230,479648,20377,479637,140769,169962,247447,479649,376963,381858,479655,407059,479658,479642,376730,381856,400560,479662,64,63,12954,479643,23692,5279,354349,1300,479638,479660,479636,479645,479650,413515,100758,225996,58109,37894,479651,479654,479663,43961,479659,2733,479656,128,479639,395266,479657,670,403941,479646,146596,479661,479647,395157,479641,479653,403925,479652,364611,387444,64631,2500,479640,338,378993,479644,139171],"class_list":["post-912093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-s-ability","tag-s-mnd-diagnosis","tag-20377","tag-2014-and-2015","tag-140769","tag-169962","tag-247447","tag-a-13-year-battle","tag-a-bit","tag-a-challenge","tag-a-former-wallaby","tag-a-gofundme-page","tag-a-life-shortening-neurological-condition","tag-a-life-threatening-illness","tag-a-lot","tag-a-person","tag-a-red-hot-crack","tag-age-37","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-birth","tag-breathe-nrl-star-jai-arrow","tag-charles","tag-cystic-fibrosis","tag-daily-tasks","tag-death","tag-ex-wallaby","tag-former-afl-player-and-coach-neale-daniher","tag-former-wallabies-player-nathan-charles","tag-former-wallaby-nathan-charles","tag-four-tests","tag-melbourne-rebels","tag-mnd","tag-mobility-aids","tag-motor-neurone-disease","tag-movement","tag-my-ups-and-downs","tag-my-whole-life","tag-nathan-charles","tag-newswire-sport","tag-no-cure","tag-nsw","tag-progressive-muscle-weakness","tag-science","tag-shoes-and-socks-and-stuff","tag-something-else","tag-stan-sport-mnd","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-nsw","tag-sydney-born-charles","tag-the-age","tag-the-disease-charles","tag-the-first-health-battle","tag-the-last-few-weeks","tag-the-nerves","tag-the-super-rugby-competition","tag-the-wallabies","tag-this-other-thing","tag-this-year","tag-three-months","tag-times","tag-wallabies","tag-western-force-and","tag-wildlife","tag-your-body","tag-your-physicality","tag-your-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912093","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=912093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}