MS Go for Gold Scholarships
Applications Closed
Applications for the MS Go for Gold Scholarship have now closed.
To be amongst the first to receive information about next years MS Go for Gold Scholarships, please fill in the below expression of interest form.
We will be in touch as soon as a date to open applications has been set for 2021.
Thank you to those who applied for a MS Go for Gold Scholarship in 2020. We are currently reviewing applications and will be in touch shortly.
2020 MS Go for Gold Scholarship Virtual Awards
This year to acknowledge and celebrate the 25 applicants who will receive a grant to go towards their dream or personal goal we held a virtual award presentation. You can watch the full recording below and hear some remarkable people in the MS community on their way to achieving their dreams.
The MS Go for Gold Scholarships enable people living with multiple sclerosis to fulfil a dream or pursue a personal goal that otherwise may be out of reach.
If you are someone living with MS and need a little bit of support to help you achieve your goal, then apply for a MS Go for Gold Scholarship.
Maybe you want to explore your creative side and make art or learn a new hobby, further your education, change careers or kickstart a business idea, Maybe you’re interested in living well by participating in wellbeing activities or purchasing equipment that will have a positive impact on your daily life. As Lydia, a past recipient of the MS Go for Gold Scholarship says, “the Go for Gold Scholarship doesn’t have to be an extravagant dream. It can be for everyday wishes…my dream was to study Italian.’
For more information on how to apply please read the Application Guidelines.
In the words of Jennifer, a past MS Go for Gold Scholarship recipient, 'the MS Go for Gold Scholarship was a game-changer.’ And Justine, ‘I’d recommend everyone actually apply. The boost that, it gave me has been invaluable.’
No project, dream, goal, business idea or hobby is too big or too small. People have applied for many different reasons; from needing equipment to help them clean their house so they can spend more time with their family, to funding a course to help kickstart their business idea.
We hear a lot from the MS community that they never applied for an MS Go for Gold Scholarship because they thought someone else may need this support more.
You are just as deserving as anyone else.
The MS Go for Gold Scholarships are available to help you live well with MS and achieve something you may not have otherwise achieved. If you need more inspiration on what past recipients have utilised their MS Go for Gold Scholarship on, please check out their stories.
How are MS Go for Gold Scholarships funded?
It’s all thanks to the generous fundraisers and supporters of the MS Mega Challenge events. People just like Mark.
Mark has hosted the biannual Mildura MS 24 Hour Mega Swim since 2005 (Mark organises everything from securing local live entertainers to initiating his 5-cent fundraising activity around town - because every cent counts!)
Living with MS himself, Mark likes to help raise money for others with MS and contribute to the MS Go for Gold Scholarships.
Mark says he “loves seeing people with MS getting out and active at this event. It’s a great atmosphere with lots of laughter and everyone comes together and becomes one supportive team overnight”
He says as a swimmer with MS it is overwhelming and humbling to see so many people willing to come together and swim for those living with MS.
Mark is just one of many people who are participants, supporters, donors and volunteers for the MS Mega Challenge events that allow MS Go for Gold Scholarships to be possible.
We also want to thank Carol Cooke AM who has been the such a driving force and inspiration for many to take part in the MS Mega Challenge events and raise funds for the MS Go for Gold Scholarships since the year 2000.
Real Stories
Here are some real stories about how our Go for Gold Scholarships helped people living with MS to achieve their dreams.
Jennifer
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In 2014 Jennifer Severn was awarded a Go for Gold Scholarship to engage a life-writing mentor. She'd been writing snippets of her life story for years and wanted to turn them into a book.
'The Go for Gold Scholarship was a game-changer,' she says. 'I'd been writing all my life and I'd earned a living for a while doing technical and commercial writing—good, plain, practical writing.' She laughs. 'But you can't write a memoir like that. A memoir is creative non-fiction. It has to come to life. → read more
'My mentor, Rae Luckie, introduced me to using all the senses to create a sense of place. I was amazed at the difference this made to some scenes and events in the narrative—just adding, for instance, the aroma of spices in the kitchen of a share house, or the sound of peacocks in an ashram garden.
'She also introduced me to some great techniques for unlocking memories. And that was the time that I started taking my manuscript seriously.
In 2018 that manuscript was shortlisted for the Finch Prize for Memoir, and this year Jennifer launched Long Road to Dry River.
Family dysfunction, inappropriate relationships, life as an 'Orange Person' … Jen's life was a search for belonging, until circumstances conspired to land her in an unrenovated 1840s shearer's cottage in Quaama, a tiny village on Dry River on the far south coast of NSW, in 1997—the same year she was diagnosed with MS.
'I don't need to tell others with MS that it colours all aspects of our lives and rules all our major life decisions,' says Jen. 'So my MS may have been one of the main sources of stress in my life, but it was also one of the factors that brought me to Quaama, a rural community that provided the sustenance I needed—somewhere I belonged.'
Jen was due to launch the book in January this year, but the New Year's Eve bushfires destroyed homes and businesses both in Quaama and in the nearby town of Cobargo, where the launch was planned at Well Thumbed Books.
'I remember evacuating at 2am that day and taking one last look at those boxes of Long Road to Dry River in my office,' she says. 'But our house was saved, and so was the bookshop.'
If ‘Well Thumbed Books’ in Cobargo rings a bell, it might be because it briefly had the world's attention in January when a notice was placed in its window—'Post-Apocalyptic Fiction has been moved to Current Affairs.'
'So we rescheduled the launch for early March. Just one week later and I would've had to cancel it due to COVID-19. There was definitely no social distancing at the bookshop that day—it was packed!
'I'm incredibly grateful for the Go for Gold Scholarship. I wouldn't have thought to consult a mentor without it, but it made a material difference to the book—and to my writing in general,' says Jen.
If you would like more information about how to support Jennifer's work and purchase her book 'Long road to dry river', check it out here: jennifersevern.com.au
Graham
The sun shines when you least expect it - but it does shine.
When I was diagnosed with MS 30 years ago, it was like being hit by a black cloud. Since then, I’ve been enjoying time with family and friends, eating well, and keeping fit.
Unfortunately, walking has become more difficult in the last few years and I now rely heavily on a walking stick to help me get around when out of my home. → read more
In 2019, I was a lucky recipient of a MS Go for Gold grant and purchased an electric tricycle with the funds. It has seriously changed my life in such a positive way. This electric tricycle has given me the ability to get out and about on all of the cycleways in my area - like I used to be able to only a few years ago. I feel like a bird with wings again when cruising about on my new wheels. Even my beautiful dog gets to come out for a walk and I’m sure you know how much dogs like going for walks.
I want to sincerely thank all the people who contributed their time and effort to earn the funds to allow this to happen and MSL for considering me worthy of the grant. If I’ve missed anyone, I sincerely thank you too.
Thank you for this beautiful gift and for changing my life.
Jessica, Justine & Lydia's MS Go for Gold Scholarship stories