A friend’s motor neurone disease diagnosis will send one of the forest machinery sector’s own around Australia next month, with a 20,000-kilometre, 38-day ride aiming to raise $150,000 for the fight against MND. That is according to Komatsu Forest’s Nigel Howard, who decided to ride when his friend and mentor, Col McCulloch, shared the diagnosis over a coffee.
Motor neurone disease attacks the nerve cells controlling movement, speech, swallowing, and breathing, with more than 2,000 Australians living with the condition at any one time, according to MND Australia. Two Australians are diagnosed, and two die from the disease every day, and no treatment yet stops its progression.
“Every kilometre I ride is for people like Col, for families living with MND,” Howard said of a challenge run in the hope that research can one day provide the answers families are looking for.
The reality of a disease Howard had only ever heard about did not set in until the pair talked, and the conversations that followed across the industry showed him McCulloch’s experience was far from rare. Too many colleagues, he found, counted a mate, a parent, a workmate, or a partner among those living with the disease.
Uniting the motorbike with the forest and timber community was an easy decision, Howard said, for an industry that turns out when its people are needed, with the ride designed to raise funds, build awareness, and start conversations that too often go unspoken.
Naming the ride after the Beast borrows from Neale Daniher, the FightMND founder and Australian of the Year, who has fought MND under that name since his 2013 diagnosis, with his Big Freeze at the MCG now the nation’s best-known fundraiser for the disease.
Behind the rider sits one of the world’s largest forest machine manufacturers, with Komatsu Forest supplying harvesters, forwarders, and chippers across every major forest region in Australia and New Zealand from its Sydney headquarters.
The lap itself will demand more than 500 kilometres of riding a day across its 38 days, with Howard covering the distance aboard a BMW R 1300 GS Adventure, the Bavarian marque’s flagship long-distance machine. Donations toward the $150,000 target are open through the MND Beast Challenge website ahead of the Thursday, 20 August start from Daylesford.
One rider on a motorbike will not cure the disease, Howard conceded, but a challenge that raises awareness, brings in funds, and gets more people talking will be worth every one of its 20,000 kilometres.
