Former Australian cricket captain Allan Border has urged Anthony Albanese to pour more federal support to better assist people living with Parkinson’s disease.
The legendary batsman was first diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disorder, which affects the nervous system and the parts of the body controlled by the nerves, back in 2016.
To raise awareness for World Parkinson’s Day on April 11, Border joined Parkinson’s Australia chief executive Olivia Nassaris to plea for more funding and research into the condition.
The awareness organisation has revealed in a new report that there are 19,500 new cases every year, with one Australian diagnosed with the disease every 27 minutes.
“A lot of people know the disease but they don’t know the impact that it has — 150,000 people in Australia have the disease, it does present in different ways,” the 68-year-said.
“When I was told I was suffering, my first image was of (boxer) Muhammad Ali and the Olympic torch, I just thought people suffered from a tremor.
“But there’s about 100,000 different ways of it presenting.”
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurological condition in Australia after Alzheimer’s disease and affects an estimated 200,000 people nationwide.
About 1000 Australians will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s this month.
Ms Nassaris estimated that the number of Australians impacted by Parkinson’s would almost triple by 2050.
“At the moment we don’t have a cause or cure, so it is frightening that a disease like this is going to almost triple in numbers,” she said.
Responding to the cricketer’s plea, the Prime Minister described Border as a “great Australian” and signalled a potential boost to government support and a co-ordinated approach to end the neurodegenerative disease.
“Our heart goes out to him,” Mr Albanese said on Thursday.
“I will have a word with the Health Minister about what more we can do. We have contributed over $100m to research into Parkinson’s.
“There’s also a pilot program for nurses about people suffering from Parkinson’s at the moment. There’s some $6.5m being used for that pilot program. We want to wait and see what the assessment of that is.”