Hayley Banks was 16 years old when her older sister was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Twelve years later, now a teacher at Callaghan College, Waratah, she has rallied a whole school community to raise funds for research into better treatment and, one day, hopefully a cure.
"When I was 16, I had never heard of it before, now the whole school is talking about it," Ms Banks said.
Students from years 7 to 10 gathered on Friday September 4 to watch their teachers get dunked with ice-cold water as part of charity FightMND's Big Freeze fundraiser.
"The Big Freeze does an ice bucket challenge because MND freezes the body," Ms Banks said.
By selling raffle tickets for students to drench their teachers and other fundraising activities, the school had raised more than $5000 on Friday, with funds from a sausage sizzle still to be counted.
MND is used to describe a group of diseases that affect nerve cells called motor neurons, where a person's nerves become damaged and start to die.
There is no cure and the average life expectancy is two to three years, according to MND Australia.
When Ms Banks' sister Jodie Bell was diagnosed at 32 years old she was told she'd be lucky to be alive in nine months.
"At the time my beautiful nieces were just one and three, and she was a public school teacher at the time," Ms Banks said.
On Friday, 12 years after she was diagnosed, Ms Bell came to Waratah to watch students raise funds.
"I feel very happy she could come today, this has been phenomenal," she said.
Ms Banks said for Jodie, the effects of MND started in her left hand and got progressively worse until she could not walk any more.
"She's now on a CPAP machine to help her breathe, literally every part of her life has been impacted," she said.
Ms Banks said about 120 children turned up to the first meeting for the fundraiser and were keen to help out.
"We have the most amazing staff and students, and the camaraderie and support has been like nothing I've seen before," she said.
Year 8 students Macey Votano and Olivia Coffee were excited to pour water on their teachers for a good cause.
"It's really fun because it's like getting to almost pay the teachers back for all the work they put us though, and it's also creating a great community amongst us," Macey said.
"It was very wholesome," Olivia said.
