Viewers of ABC TV’s 4 Corners entitled, The Waiting Game, on August 17, 2026, either live or delayed on iView, may have been especially distressed to see the ABC’s former, and renowned, Pacific correspondent, Sean Dorney and his wife Pauline, struggling to cope without adequate assistance as Sean deals with advancing Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
“Motor neurone disease is not very pretty. I need a lot of help to do almost everything. Also, I’m too old for NDIS. So aged care doesn’t have anywhere near the support and capacity that you get in NDIS,” Sean told 4 Corners.
Like others featured in the programme, Sean slipped through the cracks.
‘Sean’s aged care funding gets him just 12 hours of care a week. But because he needs two carers, he can only afford them to shower, dress and feed him three mornings a week,’ 4 Corners’ reporter Anne Connolly said.
His former Radio Australia colleague, finance reporter Jemima Garrett, and ABC Alumni’s Peter Marks, wanted to raise some money to help and posted a call with ABC Alumni for donations.
“I saw their call, and decided to make my own donation,” Dr Mark Hayes, ABC Alumni member and ABC Friends Queensland committee member, said.
“I’ve known and respected Sean for decades as a journalist and Pacific affairs commentator, and I was especially upset to see their situation,” Dr Hayes said.
He also raised the possibility of ABC Friends Queensland making its own donation too.
“We haven’t made any donations to anything in the past, wanting to spend member’s funds on our campaigning and furthering the goals of ABC Friends to defend and promote public broadcasting,” ABC Friends Qld. President, Ross McDowell said. “But assisting Sean and Pauline was special.”
“Sean has spoken at ABC Friends’ events, he and Pauline live in Brisbane, and we all recall and deeply appreciate his work over many years, so this was a special, one-off, case we were pleased to support,” Mr McDowell said.
As of mid-September, the fund set up and administered through ABC Alumni by Ms Garrett and Mr Marks had raised just over $16,000 and this money will go to help Sean and Pauline get extra assistance until a more thorough assessment of Sean’s needs is done.