Family friend David Hyde, 20, is about to set off on a 2260km walking and cycling trek called the Salt Sea to Summit Expedition to raise awareness and help fund a research program by the University of Queensland’s Professor Perry Bartlett. The trip is expected to take 20 days. Mr Hyde will walk 200km across theNullarbor plain and then cycle 2000km from Lake Eyre to the Snowy Mountains.

AS she lay dying of motor neurone disease, Deb Bailey, wife of former editor-in-chief of The Australian David Armstrong, had one final wish: that a cure be found.

Two years later, family and friends are trying to raise $5 million for research through the Deb Bailey Motor Neurone Foundation.

Family friend David Hyde, 20, is about to set off on a 2260km walking and cycling trek called the Salt Sea to Summit Expedition to raise awareness and help fund a research program by the University of Queensland’s Professor Perry Bartlett. The trip is expected to take 20 days. Mr Hyde will walk 200km across theNullarbor plain and then cycle 2000km from Lake Eyre to the Snowy Mountains.

By doing so, he will travel from Australia’s lowest point, ABC Point, 15m below sea level in Lake Eyre, to Australia’s highest, Mt Kosciuszko, at 2228m. Mr Hyde said that he hoped to inspire the community and especially young people into realising that there were positive things that they could do to help people with motor neurone disease.

“I’m not going to be able to make huge donations to the foundation myself but I can do other things to help and I am trying to use what I am good at,” he said.

Mr Hyde has been in regular training. Every three weeks, he cycles 220km from his home on Sydney’s north shore to his grandparents’ home in the Blue Mountains, a trip which takes 11 hours.

Donations to the Deb Bailey Motor Neurone Foundation can be made through the site www.debbailey.org