Emerge Australia Welcomes Casey Stoner 

We are thrilled to announce that two-time MotoGP World Champion and motorcycle racing legend Casey Stoner has joined Emerge Australia as our Ambassador to help raise funds and awareness for our new Help Cure ME campaign!

The campaign will support the newly established Australian Centre for Collaborative Research, the fifth international research centre in the Open Medicine Foundation network.

Casey, who publicly announced his diagnosis with ME/CFS in December 2019, truly understands the impact of this condition. It has affected his ability to enjoy his passions and makes life incredibly challenging for him and his young family.

“It’s extremely difficult for people on the outside that haven’t had it to understand how debilitating it is,” he says. “You feel like you’ve got brick shoes that you’re dragging around – your legs, your muscles, nothing works. 

“We all want to find a better diagnosis, treatment regime, and eventually a cure. Seeing world-class research being conducted here in Australia as part of a global research effort is very encouraging for the whole ME/CFS community.  

“Funding for this additional research work is vital. I’m proud to join with Emerge Australia in calling for people to give generously to the ‘Help Cure ME’ campaign.”

The new Centre for Research is part of a global initiative in collaboration with ME/CFS researchers at Harvard, Stanford, Montreal and Uppsala Universities. Focusing firmly on helping to cure ME/CFS, the centre will play an important role in the search to determine the cause of ME/CFS, find a cure, treat symptoms better, and define a biomarker for speedy, accurate diagnosis.

“We are so proud to announce this partnership with Casey, and so grateful he has joined us as our ambassador to help spread the word about our Help Cure ME campaign to support the new Centre for Research,” Emerge Australia CEO Dr Heidi Nicholl said.

About Casey

Casey Stoner, 35, is a retired Australian professional motorcycle racer and a two-time MotoGP World Champion (2007, 2011).

Born in Southport, Queensland, he competed in his first race at just four years old, in an under-nines race on the Gold Coast. Between his first race win at the age of six and the age of 14, Casey won 41 dirt and long track titles and 70 state titles. Over just one extraordinary weekend at the age of 12, he raced in five different categories in seven rounds, winning 32 of 35 races and all five Australian titles on offer.

At 14 Casey and his parents agreed to move up the professional ladder to road racing and moved to England (where the legal age for road racing is 14). His spectacular motorcycle racing career over the next dozen years included winning the MotoGP World Championship in 2007 for Ducati, and again in 2011 for Repsol Honda. He won the Australian Grand Prix on a remarkable six consecutive years between 2007 and 2012 before retiring from MotoGP.

Casey was named Young Australian of the Year in 2008 for his 2007 MotoGP performance, and appointed a member of the Order of Australia in 2013 for his significant services to motorcycle racing. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2015.

Casey married his partner Adriana Tuchnya in 2007 and the couple have two young daughters: Alessandra, 8, and Caleya, 3.

More information

Read about the new Australian Collaborative Centre for Research here.