Our history & founder

Doddie is diagnosed with MND in December 2016, though he doesn’t publicly reveal it until June 2017.

Our first fundraising dinner is held at Battersea Power Station in November, raising over £600,000.

In November, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation is officially registered as a charity, with Jill Douglas MBE becoming our CEO.

Doddie Aid is created by former Scotland rugby captain Rob Wainwright. Since then, we’ve run the challenge every January, encouraging people to get active and raise money.

Doddie’s Clubhouse is introduced, enabling members to make monthly payments to support our work.

On 26 November, Doddie Weir dies, aged 52, almost six years after his diagnosis, and less than two weeks after attending his last match against the All Blacks at Murrayfield.

My Name’5 Doddie Foundation is registered as an official charity in Hong Kong, raising money for research and supporting people living with MND there.

We are named JustGiving UK Charity of the year, reflecting the incredible hard work of our whole community.

We become an Introductory Member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC). This allows us to receive practical help and support aligning our funding processes to those recommended by the AMRC, and ensures that we fund the highest quality of research.

Our five-year research strategy “Catalysing a Cure”, is launched, setting out our mission to fund, guide and enable the smartest, most efficient research to accelerate the development of new treatments.

After a successful partnership in 2021, The British & Irish Lions Trust choose us again as one of their charity partners, for a two-year partnership.

We achieve full AMRC membership in March 2024, confirming our dedication to high-quality, peer-reviewed research funding for MND.

Our Year One Catalysing a Cure report is published, outlining our investment of over £3 million to a range of exciting and ambitious projects.

Building on the success of the previous year, we share our Year Two Catalysing a Cure report, and invest a further £8 million to 26 new projects, including launching two new funding programmes.

To date, we have committed £24 million to cutting-edge MND research. Our community makes it all possible. Together we’ve filled stadiums, baked, walked, ran, and hiked. We’ve done it dressed in a tartan as bold as our approach, and echoing Doddie’s message: “MND isn’t incurable, it’s just underfunded.”