Tasmania will increase its funding to fight motor neurone disease, with advocates saying a breakthrough could be within reach.
The state government will lift its funding for Fight MND to $330,000 a year over the next three years, with an extra $501,000 in this year’s budget.
That takes the total investment to $831,000 over three years.
Menzies researcher Tracey Dickson said MND was a devastating illness with no cure and a life expectancy of about two years after diagnosis.
“We’ll be using this funding to purchase a new piece of equipment … used to detect the electrophysiological signature of brain cells,” she said.
“We’ll be growing cells in a dish and mimicking the conditions that happen in the brain of somebody who has motor neurone disease.”
Dickson said the cells would allow researchers to test drugs and better understand the disease faster.
She said she remained “incredibly hopeful” a cure could be found.
“A cure could be around the corner at any moment and that may happen here in Tasmania,” Dickson said.
FightMND chief executive Matt Tilley said the announcement was about people, not just dollars.
“We talk in millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars, research and timelines, but for us, it’s about people,” Tilley said.
He said the organisation had invested $5 million into Tasmanian MND research and care since 2014.
Advocate Chris Symonds said 64 people were living with MND in Tasmania.
Symonds, who lives with a slow-progressing form of the disease, said Tasmania punched above its weight on government funding despite having just 2% of the national population.
“What we’ve been able to achieve here in Tassie is way above the other states in government funding, so we really appreciate that,” Symonds said.
He said he would meet the federal minister to push for better support for people over 65 who miss out on the NDIS.
Health Minister Bridget Archer said the money would support equipment hire, counselling, patient and family services and research at the Menzies Institute.
“This is really important for all Tasmanians that are living with this terrible disease,” Archer said.
