News
28 September, 2026
Gill considers herself one of the lucky ones
If Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a bushfire, Bowral mother of two Gill Truman considers herself lucky to be on a “slow burner”.
If Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a bushfire, Bowral mother of two Gill Truman considers herself lucky to be on a “slow burner”.
Gill, 45, was diagnosed with MND 15 years ago – just two weeks after giving birth to her second child in the United Kingdom.
The normal life expectancy for someone with MND is 27 months.
Gill told The Southern Wire last week that she was “very content” and “very happy”.
She said slow progression of the disease had given her time to ‘get her head around things’ and to prepare for when she becomes fully reliant on her motorised wheelchair to get around and a computer to communicate.
Gill lives at home with husband Matt and their two sons, Charlie and Art.
She has “amazing” carers who basically run her home and help her live a fulfilling life.
With someone to look after the household chores including the cooking, cleaning and washing, she has something most mothers do not – the time to sit down and talk to her family.
She has also been able to maintain involvement in church activities through St Jude’s in Bowral and works to raise awareness of MND and to raise money for MND research.
In recognition of her efforts, Gill was recently named MND Australia’s Volunteer of the Year at a gala function in Adelaide.
Gill wasn’t able to attend the function, but it would come as no great surprise to the people around her that she said the award wasn’t just hers to receive.
She said it belonged as much to her friends and the entire MND community.
For the past 10 years now Gill and a group of childhood friends have organised the MotorOn Charity Ball to help raise money for MND research.
The event has raised more than $2 million since 2015 with 100 per cent of the proceeds going to the Macquarie University Centre for MND Research.
More recently the same group organised PartyOn 26 – a much smaller but nevertheless well-attended event at The Ferris Wheel in Bowral which raised more than $30,000.
Gill said she never stopped being amazed by people’s generosity.
She said many people had been ‘touched’ by MND and were keen to donate to the cause.
In fact, the statistics behind MND are frightening.
There has been a 250 per cent increase in diagnosed cases of MND over the past 10-25 years.
Researchers believe it is 90 per cent environmental (or sporadic) but there has been no identified cause and there is no cure.
There are approximately 2500 people living with MND in Australia alone. It claims the lives of two Australians every day – but two new people are diagnosed with the disease every day as well.
Gill uses every opportunity she can get to speak about MND and is happy to talk at schools, or churches or “whoever will have me”.
She is still amazed by the efforts of people like footballers Neale Daniher (AFL) and Jai Arrow (NRL) who have done so much for the MND cause.
“I couldn’t have stepped up like he (Jai) has,” she said.
Gill is also helping to draft national guidelines on how people with MND should be cared for and told The Southern Wire it was a “miracle” that she was still in a position to help others.
Other people with MND were “simply surviving”.
Gill concedes there are “no happy endings” for people with MND.
“I hope and pray for a cure but I also know it’s not going to help me now,” she said.
Gill said she was lucky to have the ‘trifecta’ – a supportive family, great friends and her Christian faith.
She said a ‘perfect’ home in heaven was 100 per cent guaranteed.
Gill – who attended Bowral Public School before boarding at Abbotsleigh in Sydney during her high school years – said she never had the time to ‘navel gaze’ or to feel sorry for herself because she had two young children.
“I don’t hide the fact that it’s hard or frustrating but I try to set a good example for the people who are close because it makes it easier for them to cope,” she said.
Thanks to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Gill has an electric wheelchair with “all the bells and whistles” as well as a speech-generating computer that allows her to type and speak using only her eyes.
She said many people diagnosed with MND later in life simply didn’t have the luxury of an NDIS package or the time to learn how to use electric wheelchairs and Speech-Generating Devices (SGDs) because of the disease’s speedy progression.
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