Support Jeff Jenkins Family Battling MND diagnosis

A Letter from the Heart: Our New Story

Dear friends, family and kind strangers,

For so many years, I’ve read countless GoFundMe pages, feeling that familiar ache in my heart and like so many people, I’d often donate with a quiet thought in the back of my mind: “Thank god that’s not me or my family.” It’s a hard truth to swallow, but we’re only human. We send our prayers, we share our support and we hug our loved ones a little tighter, grateful for our own health and safety.

This year, that story changed for us. Now, this is our family’s new story:

My little sister, Sarah and her husband, Jeff, are truly the best kind of people. Sarah’s the type of person who lights up a room, always smiling and Jeff is the guy who would give you his last dollar if you needed it. Sarah and Jeff are the friends who turn strangers into family and together with their two little boys, Rome (5) and Iro (2), they’ve built a life full of love, laughter and generosity. Anyone who knows them will know how in love they are with each other, their children and life itself.

In August, their world was shattered. After months of unexplained symptoms and masked behind another chronic illness, Jeff - who’s only 38, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND), a cruel and relentless neurological disease, causing the motor nerves to become damaged and die, slowly robbing the body of its ability to move, speak, and eventually, breathe. There’s no cure, and the average life expectancy is heartbreakingly short: just 2-3 years from diagnosis.

What makes this even harder is the timing. Only months beforehand, after over a decade of intense study, Jeff passed his final exams and completed his overseas rotations to become a podiatric surgeon. Sarah and Jeff poured everything they had into this dream, with Jeff travelling to train overseas, pushing himself, sacrificing, and working so hard to pursue his dream and secure a better future for their family. Then, just as he was ready to start practising, Jeff’s diagnosis took it all away. His medical licence was revoked immediately. Sarah, who had been working in HR, was made redundant shortly beforehand as Jeff's symptoms were escalating. Just like that, everything they’d worked so hard for was gone.

2024 was meant to be about enjoying the fruits of their combined hard work and dedication, trying for their much dreamed of third baby and finally, enjoying time as a family free from study, travel, stress and sacrifice. They always focused on the light at the end of the tunnel.

Jeff has always been the picture of health - an elite soccer player in his youth, a passionate runner with the Vipers mental health Running Club, and a competitor in 100km ultra-marathons. He has always been so self disciplined, considered and deliberate in all elements of his life, excessive in nothing, apart from his dedication to his little boys and his wife Sarah.

To see someone so full of life, strength and determination now face a disease that takes it all away…it’s more than any family and friend should have to bare.

For as long as I can remember, my sister and Jeffrey have embodied the kind of partnership many aspire to find, but few achieve. Their connection was immediate - love at first sight, statistically improbable, hopelessly undeniable, the kind of relationship you’d envy if you didn’t love them both so much. Together, they’ve built a life defined by mutual respect, laughter and unshakeable support for each other. They have always spoken of how lucky they are to find what they have.

Jeffrey is a one of a kind kinda guy: sharp-witted, deeply compassionate and the best kind of dad, both firm and loving. My sister often says he’s her greatest achievement, and though she has accomplished so much, I’d be hard-pressed to disagree. Their relationship is a masterclass in love and partnership, an inspiring testament to the beauty of finding not just someone to share your life with, but someone who makes every day better simply by their presence.

Myself and a group of Sarah and Jeff’s close friends have created this page to ask for your support. We want to ease their financial burden and to help cover treatments that give Jeff some relief of symptoms. One of Jeff's medications alone costs $700 a month. But more than that, we want to give them the chance to make as many memories as humanly possible in the short time they have left together - to enjoy simple, but such precious family moments that they thought they had the rest of their lives to enjoy - dinners out and holidays that will lift their spirits – and stay in their hearts forever.

Jeff, Sarah, Rome, and Iro deserve these simple joys.

We know there are so many causes, so many stories out there. But if you can, please consider giving to this one and sharing this story from every possible platform you have. Every donation, every share, every message of support means the world to us. Any amount you can give, no matter how small, would be deeply appreciated. Let’s rally around this beautiful little family, to give them hope and to remind them that they are not alone in this journey. This could happen to any of us.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being here, for reading, for helping us carry this weight and to show Sarah, Jeff, Rome and Iro they are not alone.

Share photos of Jeff to spread the love if you wish and #forjeffjenkins

With love and gratitude,

Sarah and Jeffs family and friends x