The television and radio advertisement featuring Flinders resident Adam Regal came about when MND sufferer Bernice Atlee decided to start a campaign and approached Mr Brightwell, of Zodiac Media Productions, and others who formed a committee at Macquarie University.

‘‘Bernice wanted to make a difference and create some noise,’’ Mr Brightwell said.

‘‘She wanted to create a piece of media that would obviously catch an audience and educate people on Motor Neuron Disease.’’

Some of that was achieved with the Ice Bucket Challenge which raised finance for much research.

But Mr Brightwell said despite the success of That viral campaign many people still did know know what MND was.

He said the reality was once people were diagnosed they generally only had two to three few years to live because there was no known effective treatment or cure.

That is why Ms Atlee contacted Mr Brightwell and about half a dozen others, who started meeting at Macquarie University about six months ago to discuss ideas and plan the campaigN.

That led to other people giving up their time and expertise for the cause .

The television and radio campaign will start on May 1 to raise awareness about what MND is and help find an effective treatment.

Mr Brightwell said the hardest thing was going into the research institute at Macquarie University, which has some of the most phenomenal scientists and researchers in the world, and see it often limited by funding.

‘‘It kind of breaks your heart when you hear them say that to do a particular test it may cost $1 million, and that may not even give them the answer they are looking for, but that test could be the determining factor for an effective treatment or cure for the disease,’’ he said.

Mr Brightwell said to see their passion limited financially was difficult because it meant it would take longer to find a cure and lessened hope for those with the disease.

He said it was great to have so much support for the commercial including news anchorman Peter Overton agreeing to do the narration.

‘‘He has been heavily involved in motor neuron disease as an ambassador himself,’’ he said.

‘‘We have all come together to create something really powerful and professional.’’

 The face of the campaign is Mr Regal who is an MND sufferer Mr Brightwell describes as an inspiration.

‘‘Adam deserves all the help he and the other MND sufferers around Australia and the world can get,’’ he said.

The television commercial actually follows his story and that of his family, including wife and two children, from before diagnoses when he was a hands on dad playing with his kids, to his present state where he is sitting in a wheelchair.

It will also look at what happens at the end of his present journey.

‘‘We wanted to make this as real and authentic as we possibly could,’’ Mr Brightwell said.

‘‘This shows in a powerful way the effect it has on a family. In this case quite a young family. The harsh reality is in two to three years time Adam may not be with us unless we do find an effective treatment. It is going to be quite a powerful piece of content. This is what this disease is and this is what it does and we do not want to sugar-coat it. We want to show people what it is. Hopefully we deliver a message that everyone can relate to and understand in a very simple way.’’

Mr Regal has already done a lot of work raising money and awareness himself.

‘‘We are all really grateful that Adam and his family were happy to do this,’’ Mr Brightwell said.

‘‘This will be really hard for him and his family to watch on TV. This is a serious campaign that is delivering something real and authentic.’’

Mr Brightwell and his team were nearly finished post production.

He has been able to use a number of Illawarra people in the production such as Woonona audio engineer he has worked with on their  media projects, Jae Hayden.

‘‘Jae has created the music soundtrack for the TVC and the radio ad,’’ he said.