🌞 The call to 'Live it Forward'

Welcome back to your weekly dose of serotonin, delivered fresh to your inbox like a warm croissant — but with fewer crumbs and more hope.

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P.s. Happy Mother’s Day! Special shoutout to my incredible mum Debbie, who will inevitably tell me about a typo in this newsletter.

This week, the 11th annual Big Freeze fundraiser to help find a cure for motor neurone disease (MND) was launched in Melbourne.

To understand why the Big Freeze is such a big deal, you need to understand the person behind it: Neale Daniher AO.

Neale Daniher is an extraordinary human. He is also this year’s Australian of the Year. Neale was an AFL player who went on to coach for the Melbourne Demons before he was diagnosed with MND almost a decade ago.

There is currently no cure for MND. The speed at which MND progresses can be different for each person, but the average life expectancy is 27 months from diagnosis.

In a speech to his former team, Neale said: “I can’t accept that there’s no treatment or cure…and that drives me to say: What can I do about it?

Let me just tell you, that man has done a lot about it. In 2014, Neale co-founded FightMND, which has raised and invested more than $115 million in MND research.

The biggest fundraising event for FightMND is the AFL’s Big Freeze, which occurs during the annual Demons v Collingwood clash on the King’s Birthday long weekend at the MCG. There, Big Freeze beanies are sold and high-profile Aussies dress up and slide down the Big Freeze slide into an ice bath - all in the name of fundraising for MND.

This Big Freeze, FightMND is calling on all Australians to live it forward. It says: “Living it forward means refusing to stand still, rallying together and standing alongside those in the fight against the Beast.”

If you’d like to get involved, you can find more information here.

To me, this photo feels like a palate cleanser for the internet.

Pictured is a woman feeding a sika deer at Nara Park, located at the foot of Mount Wakakusa. The park is considered a natural treasure and is home to many wild animals and various plant species.

Majestic.

You didn’t think this newsletter was going to go out without comprehensive coverage of the biggest art prize in Australia, did you?!

That’s right, this week, the winner of the Archibald was announced. Brisbane artist Julie Fragar was awarded for her portrait of fellow Brisbane artist Justene Williams. It’s the first time Fragar has won the Archibald, but her fourth appearance as a finalist in the competition. It’s the 15th time a woman has won the $100,000 prize since its inception in 1921.

On her muse, Fragar says: “There is nobody like Justene. She thinks big and makes bigger, deploying everything from car bodies to opera singers to make work as fearless and feeling as she is.”

While we’re here, I was also obsessed with some of the other finalists for this year’s Prize. Shoutout to my extremely talented neighbour Whitney, whose portrait of Chun Yin Rainbow Chan was a finalist. An absolutely breathtaking painting!

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The population of an endangered bird species has risen to record-high numbers in NSW. Little terns are tiny seabirds that travel thousands of kilometres to nest on Australian shores every spring.

During their latest breeding season, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service counted more than 900 little tern nests, the second-highest number in 24 years. Conservationists estimate that at least 485 breeding pairs resulted in some 510 fledglings. It’s the highest count of little tern chicks ever recorded, “and a substantial jump from last year’s figure of around 370,” Parks and Wildlife said.

The service’s Acting Deputy Secretary Trish Harrup called the popular growth “an incredible achievement”. “Continued efforts are vital to protect them along our coast, and every person can play a role in making a difference,” she said.

To end today’s newsletter, I wanted to share some news from abroad, because cycling in the City of London has increased by more than 50% in the past two years.

In October last year, 139,000 people were cycling a day across 30 locations, which was up from 89,000 in 2022 and marks the biggest jump since 1999. There are now nearly twice as many cycles as there are cars on City streets during the day.

London's Walking and Cycling Commissioner Will Norman (yep, that’s a real thing) said: “Enabling more people to cycle improves health, cuts congestion and helps the environment…I’m really excited about this increase in cycling across the City of London, which is great progress towards our goal of increasing cycling journeys to 1.6 million by 2030.”