The news brand’s ‘Fund the fight to cure MND’ crusade has secured £50 million in government money to conduct research into a cure
The campaign, started by the Motor Neurone Disease Association, was first carried by the Sunday Express four months ago, with stories running every week for 18 weeks to keep momentum going. The publisher joined forces with leading patients, campaigners and charities to call for the money to create an MND Research Institute.
Now, announcing the new funding in a special column in the latest edition of the Sunday Express, prime minister Boris Johnson expressed his delight in “wholeheartedly backing” the publisher’s crusade.
Johnson wrote: “This cruel and debilitating illness kills six people in our country every single day, with a third of those diagnosed tragically losing their lives within just a year. We cannot continue like this.
“So we are going to throw the full weight of government, industry and civil society behind a new British-led scientific mission to transform the fight against this devastating disease.”
The campaign victory was particularly poignant for Sunday Express editor Michael Booker, who had lost his father to motor neurone disease in 2018. Booker said: “I saw first-hand the lack of hope there is after a MND diagnosis. In many cases people are handed a leaflet with some numbers on and then they go home knowing there’s no treatment available.
“This money provides the hope that my dad John, and many others, didn’t have. It’s been an honour to work alongside the campaigners and help secure this funding from the government and now the scientists can really get to work on treatments and, ultimately, a cure.”
