From the CEO's desk with Stacey Thorpe

Building Community Support: Together We Can Make a Difference

As you will have seen on the previous page, our Management Committee have developed a new three-year strategic plan to cover the period 2024-2026, which includes a revised mission statement and organisational values. This was sent out to all our members earlier in the year and we will keep all our supporters updated on our progress against the plan.

Whilst the plan may be new, the focus very much remains on building community and ensuring people with MND have the support and services they need to maximise quality of life and independence.

In the spirit of building community, 2024 is shaping up to be a big year for events throughout the State. Many of you will have attended one of our traditional events, the Walk to Defeat MND. We will be holding walks at the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba again this year but thanks to some incredible members of our community, there will also be walks in Gladstone and Bundaberg.

We started the year with our Mates Move 4 MND fundraiser and this saw individuals and teams throughout the state, plan their challenges to raise funds for our cause. Those taking part were also generous enough to share their ‘why’ with us. The stories behind their motivation to take part. We have shared these stories on our social media pages and I would encourage you to read them if you haven’t already. They are as moving as you would expect and an important reminder of why people impacted by MND need the whole community to get behind them.

As a small organisation, MND Queensland does our best to raise awareness and much needed funds but we rely heavily on support from the community. The people of Gladstone and Bundaberg will be much better informed about the MND cause after those events and we just could not do that without locals taking a lead. We are truly grateful for anyone and everyone that organises an event, gets involved in our fundraising efforts and helps spread the word in anyway they can.

Our staff often find people asking about the organisation when they are out and about in the community wearing their uniform so even just having MND Queensland branded merchandise in public gets people talking!

As you’ll read further on in this issue our Volunteer Program is really getting into gear and it’s thanks to the wonderful efforts of our community of volunteers that we’re going to be able to do so much more for families impacted by MND across the State.

And this year is a really important year to get MND on the agenda for our state-based politicians. The state election will take place on October 26th and there is no better time to address the inequity that exists for Queenslanders with MND caused by us being the only State MND Association not receiving recurrent funding from our state government. We have some big plans to try to change that this year and hope that we can rely on our community to get behind us. We will reach out to individuals soon to share our plans on how they can get involved but in the meantime, if you are keen to be part of our campaign and willing to share your story of how MND has impacted you, please reach out to me directly on stacey.thorpe@mndaq.org.au or call me at the office on 07 3372 9004.

Together, we can create a future where access to essential care and support is a reality for all Queenslanders. Thank you for your unwavering dedication and support—it is truly the heart of our community.