On Friday 7 July, we hosted the first St Catherine’s Big Freeze to show our support for FightMND, established by the inspiring Neale Daniher and his family. We have both been lucky enough to attend the annual Big Freeze matches between the Melbourne and Collingwood football clubs and thus, we have been able to witness the incredible impact that Neale has had in raising awareness for this incapacitating and fatal disease. He has been able to use his platform in the football community to unite individuals in supporting this cause. We wanted to replicate this in the best possible way that we could.

St Catherine’s students show their support for Motor Neurone Disease.

On the day, all girls were able to show their support for their football team by wearing their team scarf. This enabled us to unite the St Catherine’s community and show our support for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) through football in a similar way that Neale does.

Unfortunately, MND currently has no cure thus, we wanted to use the generosity of the St Catherine’s community to raise as much funds as possible to assist Neale in his fight as well as the thousands of others that are currently fighting the disease which is more appropriately labelled the ‘beast’.

Our Big Freeze was an extremely exciting event where 12 of our bravest teachers along with our two amazing School captains were dunked in a tank of freezing water. We believe this initiative was powerful in raising awareness for this debilitating disease as the cold water acts to replicate MND’s ability to weaken the muscles and mirrors the ‘freezing of neurons’ within an individual.

Twelve St Catherine’s teachers and the school captains were ‘dunked’ in a tank of cold water.

Over the two weeks leading up to the event, we sold the annual FightMND beanies to the St Catherine’s community. This was our prime source of funding for the cause and we successfully raised over $3,500.00.

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who purchased a beanie. Additionally, we want to say a massive thank you to the staff members and School captains who all personified bravery by taking the plunge. The event would not have been as successful as it was without all your support. Our ability to rally together to support an amazing cause such as MND is a true testament to the St Catherine’s community. We cannot wait to see this event grow within the following years as we must continue to work together to ‘fight the beast’.