My name is Robert (or Rab) Paulley. I’m a 29 year old Glaswegian and my main interests are theatre, film, literature, and football. I have a BA in Literature and I worked in the media for a few years after graduating, before finding my calling in Social Care. I worked for a charity called Includem for six years where I helped to start a football team, a drama group and even an Arts Council. I loved my job passionately and built lasting relationships with a variety of young people as well as my colleagues.

Two years ago I was diagnosed with Motor Neurons Disease and I stopped working earlier this year. I try to get on with my life as best I can and since being diagnosed I have; Climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, jumped 10,000 feet out of a plane, been best man at a wedding, driven coast to coast across America, reached the final table of a poker tournament at Ceasars Palace, starred in and written my own play, and begun my long awaited memoirs! I like to keep busy.

My situation has been made a lot easier due to the fact that I have the most wonderful friends and family a body could wish for. The reason my friends have started this website is so that I might be able to go to North or South America, where there are numerous stem-cell trials already taking place. I am hopeful that stem-cell treatment will at the very least slow the progress of my illness.

I would like to thank you for visiting the site and for any help you are able to offer, it is very much appreciated.

Hello, I'm Ryan McKenna, and I'm one of the trustees for Rab's Fund. I’m 29 years old, and I work for BBC Scotland as a graphic designer.

I've known Robert for over 20 years, and I can honestly say that no one deserves any help and support more than him. He's well known for putting other people before himself, and goes about his life with dignity and very little self-pity. I'm sure many consider him an inspiration. I certainly do.

He was my best man at my wedding (along with the big guy below) and he delivered a speech that many guests considered the best they had ever heard. To many the speech would have seemed effortless, but this type of task does prove difficult for anyone with Motor Neurone Disease. Robert simply refuses to let his illness take over, and takes on anything with enthusiasm and absolutely no requirement for sympathy. He's an amazing friend, and once you meet him you understand why we care for him so much.

This website was created by our team as a central place for Rab's Fund information, allowing people to donate and give details for upcoming and past events. We hope that by setting up this site as a portal to the fund, we can give Robert, his family, and his many friends some encouragement

Hello, I'm Neil Riddell, and I'm also a trustee for Rab's Fund. I'm 29 years old.

Rab is my housemate and friend, I have known him since the first day of secondary school when he introduced himself while boasting about his new Puma King school bag and jacket! Since that fateful meeting at the school bus stop all those years ago, we have been through a lot together, good and bad, including a few adventures along the way.

We have travelled across America, following Route 66 (with an extended pit stop in Las Vegas, anyone who knows Rab knows he is partial to a wager or two!). We also spent a month in Australia, two weeks of which were funded by Rab's now legendary 'Super Coupon', a football bet which I'm sure all his friends now know that HE picked out and I was just riding on the coat-tails of his superior football knowledge. Still, it bought us some extra time in Oz so I wasn't complaining (much).

During these two trips, Rab had already been diagnosed with MND, and I use them to illustrate a point about Rab's character and attitude towards this disease. He has never let it stand in the way of what he wants to do. Even though he retired from his job as a social care worker earlier this year, he still takes an active interest in his past cases and I'm sure if you ask any of the young people and famlies he has worked with, they will hold him in as high esteem as his friends and family do.

Throughout this illness he has been nothing but positive about the future, candid when asked about his condition, and never invites anyone to show or offer any sympathy towards him. To put it plainly, he gets on with it. By setting up this fund, we want to help to give hope for the future to Rab and his family in their time of need.