Richard Riggs' family to raise thousands to fight motor neuron disease after final promise

It was a quiet family get together after a weekend away, midway through his nine month-decline caused by motor neuron disease, and he was still able to talk, daughter Lorrayne Fishenden said.

"I've had a good life, I've had a really good life," he said to them, she recounted to the Leader.

"'I can handle that my time's coming, what I can't handle is what I'm leaving behind'.

"What I said to him, you're leaving a legacy, dad, you're leaving all of us kids. We're going to raise $30,000 for MND [Motor Neuron Disease] patients and we're going to do that in 12 months.

"I needed to take something that was so incredibly heartbreaking and horrific for us and turn a positive out of it. We had to do something."

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Mrs Fishenden said there's no hope of curing the virus at the moment - because nobody knows what causes it.

By the end of the "excruciatingly painful" disease, which lasted just nine months, he was communicating by blinking, she said.

"He literally was just a head by then, a brain," she said.

"[It's] a horrific disease to watch because their mind stays intact. So everything is going on around them they know exactly what's happening, they just can't do anything. The body has just shut down, their nerves have just shut down on them."

Mr Riggs was just 67 when he died in January 2020, but the Manilla resident was well-known in the horse sports sector both in the Tamworth region and further afield.

The family have appealed to the community to help them raise their goal and fund their dead dad's last legacy in a pair of events in coming months, both taking place in motor neuron disease week.

First, a charity cattle auction on May 3 at the Tamworth saleyards. Then a team roping event running from May 8 to 9.

Mrs Fishenden said they're hoping the horse sports community will travel from as far as Far North Queensland to compete, competing for about $100,000 in prize money in the latter event, to take place at the Bendemeer Rodeo Grounds.

The money will all go to the charity Motor Neuron Disease NSW to help future people suffering from the disease.

But best of all, the event isn't a one-off. The annual memorial event are set to be Mr Riggs' legacy.

Mrs Fishenden said if they can pull it off they'll fulfill that promise they made sitting on the Namoi River that perfect Sunday evening.

"We just said this is what we're going to do dad, we're going to raise this money," she said.

"And that's the legacy that you're leaving, we've done this for you and your grandkids will be really proud of you.

"I just don't want other families to go what we went through."

Entries opened on April 1, and close on April April 28.

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