Neale Daniher has been at last named Victorian of the Year. It will be indeed fitting if this real-life champion could be awarded the national honour on Australia Day (Jan 26).
It’s a remarkable life story of a truly inspiring Australian. A quote from Neale has a poignant simplicity.
“A wise man once said, ‘Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.’ I understand the wisdom of this—right now, I don’t have much ‘forwards’ left,” he said.
Now in his early 60s, Neale has to date survived over a decade of the dreadful affliction Motor Neurone Disease (MND). This is a long period for any victim of ‘The Beast’, as Neale has labelled it.
Many believe his battle has been extended for a purpose—to raise awareness of MND and spearhead the drive for funding to enable a possible, eventual cure.
The now famous MCG Big Freeze campaign and annual Daniher Drive have achieved so much, with around the $100 million mark raised to date and counting.
Neale’s story is a remarkable one. One of 11 siblings raised by wonderful parents on the farm fields of the North Riverina—a fabled place of wide blue skies and sunburnt country—a genuine part of the real Australia.
School-days in the small town of Ungarie, thence for a time at Young (NSW) on the way to board at Assumption College Kilmore (ACK). At ACK he was a gifted student and a highly skilled footballer and cricketer.
He starred and led the college’s First XVIII to premierships in both sports. He was much admired by teammates and other students, and idolised by the younger children.
His deeds on the playing fields of winter and summer are etched into ACK sporting folklore. Had he not been taken by Essendon straight from Year 12, I believe he could have reached the elite levels of cricket—he was a sublime left-handed batter.
He starred for Essendon Football Club in a career sadly cut short by knee injuries, but his 77 games were at a stellar level. Aged 20 he was appointed captain of the famous club.
Beyond his cruelly short career with the Bombers, Neale coached Melbourne and later worked in a senior position for West Coast Eagles.
Neale has bravely accepted his lot in this life, supported by his wife Jan and all extended family. Having known him in the classroom and playing fields, and appreciating his friendships over the decades, I regard him as a true Australian hero.
ACK CRICKET
ACK lost to Peninsula last round after being sent into bat at Mt Eliza. It was the Blues’ first loss but hopes of reaching the finals remain high. Two games remain before the Christmas break.
REMARKABLE PERSON
Simon Costa is one of the most remarkable people I have known. The former ACK student has contributed extraordinary time and energy to the less fortunate.
He gave nearly four years of his life to work in a voluntary capacity in the United Nations (UN) World Food Program. He achieved amazing success in developing a program for sustainably alleviating hunger and malnutrition in the part of Africa where he devoted his efforts.
The UN recognised his program in 2015 as the most significant humanitarian program for that year. All this was done on a pro-bono basis by Simon.
Simon was motivated by a desire to make a difference for people in deeply-disadvantaged circumstances. He has been extraordinarily successful in what he has been able to accomplish.
Through his leadership, he has been able to establish a sustainable program to help so many desperately-disadvantaged people to significantly improve their situation.
Because of the demonstrated value of the program, he has personally attracted funding from the World Bank, the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation, and others to help finance improved storage of grain. This substantially reduced spoilage from insects, rodents, and weather, which previously caused half of the grain grown and donated to be wasted.
To give integrity to the program, Simon arranged for it to be audited by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was highly commended as a result.
His report issued at the end of his assignment was titled Eradicating the World’s Greatest Solvable Problem. It tells of a remarkable success in making real change in people’s lives.
Beyond the above, Simon cycled across the French Alps and climbed Africa’s highest mountain Kilimanjaro to raise funds for schools in the poorest regions of Africa.
He has just returned after months in Tanzania, Africa, where he has overseen the building of a boarding school for orphaned girls. Over the past decade and a half, he has made a massive difference to countless lives. Simon is a nephew of the late Frank Costa, Geelong mayor and Cats president.
His own parents were killed in a car accident when he was a small boy. He is very proud of his two lovely daughters, Sarah and Gemma.
RICKY AND CREW
Pictured are Ricky Yu, his two teenage sons and their karate coaches. A well-known and popular Kilmore pharmacist, Ricky and the two lads have been practicing the martial art for well over a decade. Ricky was a student at ACK in the late eighties.
