This year’s winner of the popular NTI Motor Neurone Disease (MND) fundraiser is hitting the road on an East Coast trek, after collecting the keys to his brand new ute and caravan in Brisbane.
Robert Monks, from Hobart, won the bumper prize earlier this year, holding the winning ticket for NTI’s annual fundraiser drawn at the NTI Townsville 500 in July.
The Toyota Tundra hybrid ute named “Dusty” and New Age Manta Ray 19ft off-road expedition caravan will be put to good use straight away, as Robert and his wife Kylie drive home to Tasmania with the new top of the line gear.
“It was an incredible feeling to slide behind the wheel of this new ute for the first time, and to think – it all came about just by helping a great cause,” Mr Monks said.
Mr Monks picked up the new equipment from NTI’s Head Office in Brisbane, ahead of making the 2500-kilometre trip back to Tasmania.
“We’ll give the new gear a great test drive on the way home and then there will be plenty of adventuring and camping across Tasmania,” Mr Monks said.
“NTI does an incredible job fundraising to support MND research, and I'd like to thank them again for their ongoing commitment to such important work.”
Each year, NTI runs its MND fundraiser in honour of former CEO Wayne Patterson who lost his battle with the disease in 2018.
It has now grown into one of Australia’s largest MND fundraisers, with 100% of funds raised going towards medical research though NTI’s official research grant.
Almost $3 million has been raised over the life of the fundraiser. This year’s fundraiser alone tipped in an extra $468,000 towards that tally.
NTI CEO Janelle Greene said it was heartwarming to see how much support the charity initiative received across Australia.
“We’re grateful that so many people around the country join us each year in the hopes of winning an exciting prize, but more importantly to work towards better treatments and a cure for Australians diagnosed with MND,” Ms Greene said.
“Each day, two lives are lost to MND in Australia and two new cases are diagnosed.
“We hope our fundraiser will help researchers in their quest to crack the code of MND.
“Thank you to all our partners, supporters and ticketholders for making this year’s event another great success.”
