Bryan Cousins inspired by Neale Daniher after MND diagnosis

WA football great Bryan Cousins has described how he took inspiration from the late Neale Daniher when he learned he had motor neurone disease, and how his diagnosis had come as a "huge jolt".

Cousins, the father of fellow WA football great Ben Cousins, was diagnosed with the fatal disease just over a year ago.

Daniher, a former AFL footballer and coach, died last month at the age of 65 after a long and courageous battle with the disease.

Since his diagnosis in 2013, Daniher worked to raise awareness of the condition and also helped raise millions of dollars in fundraising for research.

Cousins, who enjoyed a stellar football career with Perth in the WAFL before playing for Geelong in the 1970s, went public with his own MND battle last month.

'You've got MND'

Speaking to 102.5 ABC Radio Perth, he said the hardest thing about his diagnosis was working out how to tell his family.

"I think anyone that gets diagnosed with an illness that's got a terminal aspect about it and is incurable … it was a huge jolt," Cousins said.

"I knew there was something wrong, but I didn't think it was anything as severe as this.

"When I got referred to a neurologist, I started looking up on the internet what I might have, and the one thing I didn't want to get was MND.

"I sat in there after all these tests, and the doctor or professor said, 'you've got MND'.

"To be perfectly honest, I got a bit teary, but it was only thinking about how I'm going to tell my children, and that was probably the hardest thing.

On the evening he was diagnosed, Cousins was driving to Fremantle when his thoughts turned to Daniher.

"All I could get my head around was Neale Daniher."

"(I) thought about he had approached it … his courage and his determination.

"The word that kept coming into my mind was 'defiance'. He almost defied the fact that MND was going to control his life."

Cousins 'going OK'

Cousins said Daniher reached out to him when he learned of his diagnosis, and paid tribute to all he did to raise awareness of the disease.

"So many of us now know about MND, so many people support MND (because of Daniher) and unfortunately in Neale's case a cure … that can halt it hasn't been found yet," he said.

Cousins said he was "going OK" since his diagnosis.

"It's affected my legs and my hands a bit," he said.

"Every case of MND takes you in different places. I'm just dealing with it, I'm independent.

"We just hope our wonderful scientists will find a cure for it to save as many people and their families from the hardship on which it puts on us."

Ben's journey

Cousins also opened up on the journey of his son, Ben, the 2005 Brownlow Medallist, who battled serious drug problems for years.

"That was a journey in our life that was obviously extremely tough, but it was toughest on him,"

"I get asked a lot of times by people … about dealing with someone suffering from addiction, and I'm not making any excuses; he made some poor choices and bad decisions in his life that made him end up where he did.

"But addiction does not discriminate.

"And when people are an addict … they are the ones that are the sick.

"They are the ones that you've got to encourage, they're the ones that you've got to tell them you're proud of them, all be it that they struggle and they relapse and they relapse.

"But he's done a fantastic job … to get his life back in order, and I hope it gives inspiration and hope to other addicts and their families that there is a way out."