Lex Bailey: Family of late Toowoomba businessman, philanthropist to raise $175,000 for new machine to diagnose motor neurone disease early
Legendary Toowoomba businessman Lex Bailey’s life was cut short by motor neurone disease — now his family hopes to raise enough money to purchase Queensland-first technology to help fight the vicious condition.
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To most residents, Lex Bailey was a titan of Toowoomba business, a pillar of the community and someone who embodied all things great about the Garden City.
But in his final years of life, his daughter Amelia said the owner of Bailey’s Store was privately fighting a severe health battle — the cause of which he would discover far too late.
“He was struggling to breathe, he was becoming very weak in his legs when walking, also he was starting to have trouble swallowing, his voice was starting to get weaker and weaker,” Ms Bailey said.
“He knew something was wrong, but it was just that constant line (from doctors) of ‘we don’t know what it is’.
“Dad had a number of misdiagnoses, so it wasn’t really until towards the end of his life that we were told that it was actually motor neurone disease that was causing these symptoms.”
Mr Bailey was diagnosed with the progressive and currently incurable neurodegenerative disorder less than a year before he died in June last year at the age of 77, despite suffering symptoms as early as 2021.
In the end, the legendary philanthropist and grazier opted for voluntary assisted dying due to his body’s deterioration.
“It just got to the point where his body had given up, and he just couldn’t take it any longer, so we got the phone call and within 24 hours, he was gone,” Ms Bailey said.
Amelia today lives with an unanswered question — could his life had been extended if he had been diagnosed earlier?
“Once we did know, he was then told he only had a couple of months to live, and it was quite progressive by that stage,” she said.
“It was very scary for him, and I think the journey was confusing — when he was told, it would have been a personal hell that I think that he didn’t open up or share much about.”
State-first machine will aid search for MND cure
The question of “what if?” is what has driven the Bailey family’s new fundraising venture Lex’s Legacy, which hopes to raise $175,000 by Saturday to purchase Queensland’s first transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) machine and have it based in Toowoomba.
The campaign, being run in collaboration with the Nerve Connection Foundation, will culminate in a now sold-out long lunch on Saturday at the Downs Club — of which Mr Bailey was a past president.
Ms Bailey said she didn’t want any other family to go through what she and her loved ones had with her father.
“If Dad had have had access to this technology, a TMS machine, particularly here in Toowoomba, then his diagnosis obviously would have been quicker and he would have probably had a completely different ending to what his ending actually was,” she said.
“If we can raise the money, $175,000 to purchase a TMS machine and have it based here in Toowoomba then future sufferers of MND will be able to have a better diagnosis, quicker diagnosis, which then means that can actually have more things in place to make that time less stressful, less scary and less unsure.”
Nerve Connection Foundation ambassador Matt Butler, who himself has enjoyed the benefits of clinical trials to combat his muscular dystrophy, said the machine would not only speed up diagnoses but also assist researchers to find a cure.
“In a real nutshell, the machine does two things – it helps with diagnosis of motor neurone disease, but it also helps with the research of MND,” he said.
“With MND, there is a long way from finding a cure or a treatment, so my goal in my lifetime hopefully is there’s a treatment or cure for motor neurone disease and the other types of muscular dystrophy.
“There are a lot of people in regional Australia who have suffered from motor neurone disease and having that access to that equipment here in Toowoomba would be first class.”
‘Generous by heart’: Lex’s legacy praised
Downs Club past president Cameron Stevenson said there could be no better venue to host an event for Mr Bailey than the legendary private members club, which renamed its main bar in his honour before his death.
“He exemplified what it means to be a member of a club like this — that it’s not about what the club can do for you, but what you can do for the club,” he said.
“I was president during Covid and obviously as a hospitality venue we got shut down, and Lex was one of the first members to give me a call personally and say ‘how is the club going now, what can we do to help?’
“That exemplifies the sort of character he was.”
Toowoomba mayor Geoff McDonald, who knew Mr Bailey well as a fellow CBD business owner, said he hoped the region would rally behind the cause based on the mark he had left.
“Lex was a real tower of a man in stature, but he was also a very generous man by heart,” he said.
“You could almost say that we’re paying back, the community’s paying back the generosity of one individual.
“They were very, very generous supporters of many things, and for the community now to rally behind a very important cause, which was the demise, sadly, of Lex to MND, and for this equipment to be able to be purchased to extend the wellbeing of someone is so really important.”
How to support campaign
Ms Bailey said Saturday’s long lunch had been heavily supported by a range of personalities (many of which had connections to Lex) donating items to the extensive auctions, Toowoomba and national businesses, including the Morgans Foundation, Mort and Co, Anyday Group Restaurants, Tattersalls in Brisbane, jeweller Margot McKinney and Sunshine Coast artist Collie Crawford.
“We’ve had some amazing support already — $175,000 is our target and we’ve got $60,000 raised already,” she said.
“It was all just very timely and fitting that they’ve come to the party, but we haven’t reached that target yet, so we’re still needing help.”
Those who have missed out on tickets can still donate to the cause by heading online to the Nerve Connection Foundation website.
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Originally published as Lex Bailey: Family of late Toowoomba businessman, philanthropist to raise $175,000 for new machine to diagnose motor neurone disease early
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