John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

In my electorate there is a man who hopes to donate $100,000 to the MS Society. MS is a horrendous neurological disorder for which there is no cure. Later this month Tony and his wife, Selena, will be auctioning their farm, which is at Lucknow near Orange, and he says a percentage of the money from that sale will go to the MS Society. Tony, who is 49 years old, is a victim of MS. He is a farmer but because of heat intolerance, a symptom of MS, he is no longer able to farm. If he gets hot he starts to shake, and tremors set in which can last for days. Like other victims of this hideous disorder, Tony has been struck down in the prime of his life. His four children and his wife are very supportive. He is a very bright man with no history of drugs. He might have lost skin playing rugby but, aside from MS, is generally very healthy.

It is staggering that three out of four people being diagnosed with MS are women, and most are diagnosed in their 30s. MS is more common in colder climates and also more prevalent in people who have a history of working outdoors. Tony has relapsing and remitting MS and was diagnosed about three years ago. Heat intolerance is causing great problems because tremors start instantly in the sunlight. He gets very hot, headaches start, and he has to lie down in a dark room until the shakes go away. Tony says he is fatigued most of the time and has gone from working up to 60 hours a week on the farm to maybe just three hours a day. He has also adjusted his work practices to work in the morning cool. His left eye has developed problems—eyesight trouble is just one of many symptoms of MS.

Tony says that when he was first diagnosed he did not believe it and he adopted a ‘head in the sand’ approach. He says that with his health problems there is no way he could do a walk or something like that to raise funds for the MS Society, but since he has to sell his farm, although it will not be a fire sale, he would like to donate a percentage of the profits from that sale to the society. However, he will be checking on where the money goes to achieve the most good.

Tony is from the class of ’76 and, coincidentally, went to the same school as the Labor Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Tony Burke—St Patrick’s College in Strathfield. I am told that the Today Tonight current affairs program will be running a story about Tony.

We do not know how many people have MS because not everyone is diagnosed, but it is a horrendous neurological disorder. The latest estimate is 18,000 people in Australia and 2½ million people worldwide, with the number rising by seven per cent each year. The average age of diagnosis is 30, and 80 per cent of sufferers are of working age. Anyone who is interested can look at this website: www.tottens.bigpondhosting.com. As I said, 75 per cent of people with MS are female—three-quarters of all sufferers. (Time expired)

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