We’re delighted to announce that Dollar Academy, in partnership with Thomas Franks Ltd, will be taking part in Doddie’5 Triple Crown cycling challenge in March 2026 – an epic 800 mile cycle ride from Melrose to Dublin over 4 days in support of the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.
While the challenge will be physically demanding for the team, at its heart it is a fundraising event for the Foundation, supporting vital research towards a world free of MND. Dollar has chosen to support the Foundation again this year because MND continues to directly touch our community through our Former Pupils. Last year, Dollar supported the charity ride in memory of Scott Stewart (FP 2000), who died in December of 2024 age 42. This year, we ride for Iain Muir-Nelson (FP 1984), who was diagnosed with MND in 2024.
You can learn more about their journey here.
This is his story.
The Dollar Academy Years
Iain boarded at Dewar House throughout his time at Dollar, despite his family living in Stirling. His father’s army career meant boarding offered stability. Like many former pupils, Iain’s relationship with school wasn’t always easy. But, with time, those years became something he and his brother Bruce regularly return to in conversation – shared experiences that shaped them both and remain part of who they are.
It was through the school’s pipe band that Iain enjoyed his time the most. Starting as a snare drummer, Iain won competitions and eventually became Drum Major in his final year, following in his brother Bruce’s footsteps. His proudest moment? Leading a massed Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums out of Edinburgh Castle onto the esplanade, wearing the Dollar Academy CCF cap badge.
“Amazing moment,” Iain wrote to the school recently, using the eye-gaze technology that now gives him his voice.
Building a Life
After leaving Dollar, Iain built a distinguished 30-year career as a Maxillofacial Prosthetist at St George’s Hospital in London, creating bespoke facial and body prostheses for patients who needed them most. He met Rachel at university in Bristol, and together they discovered a deep love for Scotland through a two-week camping trip that took them from Perth to John O’Groats and down to Dornie. They later married at Eilean Donan Castle, behind the longest window, in 1998, and Scotland became their family’s treasured escape.
Iain was also a passionate motorcyclist. At 30 he learned to ride, one of those “questionable life choices” his mother never quite approved of, and it became a huge part of his life. He taught others to ride to advanced standard through London Advanced Motorists and volunteered with SERV, delivering blood supplies on his bike across London and neighbouring counties, because it was faster than a car. “Motorcycling was a huge part of my life,” Iain reflects.
The Diagnosis
“The earliest things I noticed were a slight numbness in my right forearm,” Iain explains. After a fall in the garage, he attributed the symptoms to an injury. But the numbness persisted, and his grip strength began to fail, first with tools at work, then with a computer mouse.
By the time Iain and Rachel walked into the neurology appointment in May 2024, they had no idea they were entering an MND clinic. The diagnosis was delivered bluntly, with little empathy. “A rather surreal, incredibly impersonal, vague and insulting appointment,” Iain recalls. “I immediately broke into sobbing tears. I don’t remember anything else that day, not where the car was parked, not the drive home, not anything.”
The progression has been brutal. Within months, Iain could no longer ride his beloved motorcycle or continue his work. By now, he cannot move independently or speak. He communicates through eye-gaze technology, meticulously spelling out each word by looking at letters on a screen.
The Waiting Game
“Everything is too late,” Rachel explains. “You need the wheelchair now, the wet room now, the vehicle now. But you have to wait; wait for assessments, wait for funding, wait for builders. And we don’t have time to wait.”
The family’s home required £60,000 of adaptations – an extension for a wet room, the kitchen floor raised to eliminate a step. The wheelchair-accessible vehicle needed £13,000 upfront. A robotic feeding arm arrived too late for Iain to use it.
“If we’d known earlier, there are things we could have started sooner,” Rachel reflects. “We’d have had more time together as a family. That’s what I find really sad.”
Even with their wheelchair-accessible vehicle, getting out and about is complicated. The van is too tall for most car parks. Without Iain, Rachel can’t use the disabled parking badge. Their teenage twin daughters have watched their father’s decline while navigating the ordinary dramas of adolescence, a strange parallel universe where homework and friendship troubles co-exist with hospital appointments and hoists.
Finding Acceptance
“At first, I kept wondering what I had done in my past, was I being punished?” Iain shares. “But I have come to accept that my MND diagnosis is just a part of my life’s journey.”
He’s clear about how he wants his story told: “When this part of my life’s journey reaches its conclusion, I don’t want anyone to say I lost my battle or that I lost my fight with MND. It’s not been a fight, more a part of my life’s journey. My life story concludes with MND. The final chapter will be that I died of complications of MND. The end.” What matters to Iain now is what comes next for others: better support, faster access to equipment, and, ultimately, effective treatments and a cure.
Why We Ride
When Iain heard that Dollar Academy would be supporting My Name’5 Doddie Foundation through the Triple Crown ride, he got in touch:
“I would like to congratulate Dollar Academy yet again for supporting the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation this year. As a Former Pupil recently diagnosed with MND, I am proud to say that I spent my educational years at Dollar. Thank you for supporting the Foundation, as an MND sufferer I am extremely pleased to hear it. Thank you – together we will find treatment or a cure for this dreadful disease.”
From 10-13 March 2025, our team will ride from Melrose to Dublin, covering 800 miles across three nations and finishing in time for the Ireland v Scotland match. When our riders push through tired legs, cold mornings and long days in the saddle, they will be riding for people like Iain– and for families like his – so that future diagnoses come with more hope than heartbreak – for earlier diagnosis, better support, and ultimately, a cure.
This is our why, and together, we ride to help change the story of MND.
“When the road is uphill and the weather is being mean to you, dig deep and turn your shoulders to the worst of the weather and remember that every rotation of the pedals is raising money to research a cure for all those struck by this dreadful disease, so that families no longer have to go through this heartache.”
Iain Muir-Nelson (FP1984)
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