It's a proud day for myself and Rimmer,
it took quite a while to set up,
and a lot of hard work from a lot of people.
I'm just proud to be sat here today having launched the foundation.
The diagnosis of MND for any person and any family is horrific.
I'm quite fortunate in the fact that I've nearly had symptoms for three years
come the new year. A third of people who have symptoms die within a year
and half of those people die within two,
so it is a rapidly progressing disease which affects people's arms, legs,
it affects the swallowing muscles, it affects the talking muscles,
and eventually affects the breathing muscles, which is fatal.
I can only imagine, people who are diagnosed with MND
who have no support, no family or friends,
so right from the outset I tried to have a positive outlook on things
and we're trying to do everything that we can now to make a positive impact.
That's why we've set the foundation up with the main three aims,
of raising awareness, supporting individuals and families
and also to donate money towards research.
Its a joint foundation, myself and Chris Rimmer,
when I was diagnosed Rimmer reached out to me
through a friend of my brother's.
At that moment in time he was diagnosed with MND for over four years
and he knew what I was gonna come up against.
He's been an absolute inspiration for myself and we both said
that we want to try and make a make a difference
and do everything we could to help,
so that leads us to be sitting here with the foundation.
I've got to say, thanks so much.
No problem.
Thanks, James.
It's a heartbreaking story, so if they played one time or 400 times for Liverpool,
it doesn't make a difference, you played for Liverpool
so that means we will never forget you.
It's playing football for the best reason in the world.
Without everyone here buying a ticket and contributing and supporting this game
and supporting the foundation, today simply isn't impossible.
From the bottom of our hearts, from myself, Rimmer,
from the foundation, from everyone living with MND,
I'd just like to say a massive thanks.
FANS CHANT: ♫ Stephen Darby baby!
♫ Stephen Darby ohhhh. ♫
I was diagnosed in September 2018.
It was a tough day, probably your worst nightmare.
I'd actually had symptoms for nearly 18 months
and the symptoms are quite subtle.
They started with a little bit of hand weakness and twitching in my arm,
which then leads to twitching all over your body.
So in that 18 months I was going through a number of tests,
and with MDN there's not one test to lead to diagnosis,
so once you've eliminated every other disease
or every other illness possible,
then they come to the diagnosis that it is MND.
So to go through that for over 18 months, it was tough,
and to have that in the back of your mind, that there's a possibility it could be MND,
it was a difficult period, but no more so than when I was diagnosed.
It's something I'll never, ever forget.
I had to sit down and think of actually what he'd just said to me.
You don't realise or think that you're gonna hear someone
who's close to you say those words to you,
especially at such a young age as well.
We've grew up together, came through the Liverpool ranks,
under-9s was the first time I think I ever met him.
Come through the Academy, won Youth Cups, Reserve League level,
then went on to play in the first team and made some experiences
going to the Bernabeu away in the Champions League,
made our Champions League debut away at PSV together,
and our parents are still best friends now,
we're still best mates now as well,
and it's something, he will always be a lifelong friend,
so it's been a long time.
I broke down on the phone, I'll happily admit that,
and he was the one on the phone telling me
everything's going to be all right,
when he was the one who'd just been diagnosed.
And that just sums up what type of person he is,
it was always about other people and what he wanted to do,
and I think within that first minute or two,
I don't think I spoke, I think he just explained everything that he'd been told.
He just kept saying,
"Listen, we're gonna fight it together and I want you by my side."
"We're going to attack it as one another and we're gonna defeat it."
I said, "Right, mate", and I think the first time I spoke in the the conversation
was to say, "Right, come on, I'm right behind you, what do we need to do?"
Obviously had to make my announcement that I'd retired from football,
so straight away from then it was trying to look forward
and to do everything that we can.
A lot of tough phone calls, a lot of tough conversations,
and a lot of tough times,
but thankfully I've got an amazing wife and an amazing mum and dad
and my brother Kev, the rest of the family and friends,
they've been incredible and I've had that support there.
It's been a rollercoaster ever since but one that I'm happy to be along with
and very proud to be part of.
He strove as a nine-year-old boy to become a professional footballer
for Liverpool Football Club and he got that dream,
he now has a different dream to help people with MND and getting awareness
and get a positivity out there and find a cure for it,
so all we can say is he won't let that stand in his way,
he's going to get out there to the world and let people know what it is
and how we can help him.
♫ Stephen Darby baby... ♫
We've done a sponsored walk from Bradford City to Liverpool, calling at Bolton,
because Stephen Darby played for those two clubs.
He was at Bolton with me 18 months ago,
I just hit it off with him straightaway.
I just thought, "I want to do something for him."
We decided to do a walk and we included 19 clubs,
so it's been a little bit of a long haul for the last few days,
but it's been fantastic.
Stephen himself is such a lovely, lovely man.
To see him and where he's at
at the moment, it's sad,
but he's such a positive guy,
people are out there,
there's plenty of things going on supporting him,
and he will get all the support he needs from us.
We've reminisced about coming to Goodison and Anfield along the way,
obviously spoke about Stephen, who's the important person in this.
We're there to support him,
I've literally just spoke to him a couple of minutes ago,
we had a bit of a laugh on the telephone and that's his personality.
He'll keep working hard and get through it,
and we'll be there to support him and help him all the way.
Stephen Darby is one of the best kids I've ever worked with.
And David Lee will vouch for that.
His parents are here, I love him to bits,
he'll never walk alone, we'll walk with him.
Thank you very much to Peter Moore and Liverpool Football Club.
You have two families - your own family and your football family.
And your football family is just like your family;
anything happens like this we all pull together, and the support we've had has been fantastic.
A very emotional night, but I just hope we've raised a lot of money for Stephen.
We'll do whatever it takes going forward here to help them,
it's such a a tough thing for Stephen to go through,
for his family to go through, and the bigger the family that helps you,
I think the easier it will be for him, and we're a big family.
You can't imagine what it would be like to get that diagnosis
and learn the ins and outs of everything to with MND,
but the work he's done so far is amazing and today's a good day
and a celebration of what's been done already.
It's just the start, I'm sure, of more great work to come.
Every time you speak to him about it,
ask him how he is, he's great,
he's never feeling bad, he's always upbeat,
he's always worrying about everyone else and how they're feeling,
so I think the support here today shows exactly what Darbs is all about
and what he means to everyone,
so any support that his mates can give him
I think you can see everyone's right behind him.
It's just a testament to the sort of character he is,
that he's doing this for others and not himself.
Your first instinct is to go and live your life, do as many things as you can,
but for Darbs he just thought, "No, I'm gonna put the word out",
for people who aren't as fortunate as him to get the support that he's had,
and help them, which is just truly amazing.
I think since his diagnosis the football world has come out to show
how much love and respect he has in the game,
and from a personal point of view, he's one of my closest friends,
he's been fantastic and we've shared some fantastic moments together
and we will share more in the future as well.
It will be a roller coaster, we will have our ups and we will have our down days,
but as long as we keep fighting and stay positive,
we want to show MND that we can attack it and we can fight it,
we will stick together and we will do all we can to get that research and find that cure.
It's quite ironic, cos I never attacked at all in my career!
We had a laugh about that.
But it was Rimmer, when we came to set up the foundation,
he said we'd need a hashtag or a slogan, and #attackMND fits perfectly
with the mentality that I've had since I was diagnosed
and also the mentality that Rimmer's had,
he's had a lot of battles over the last five years,
living and battling MND, and he's an inspiration.
So Rimmer came up with the slogan
and hopefully, we're both sat here today launching the foundation,
that's exactly what we're doing.
Hopefully the end goal will be to find a cure sooner rather than later.