Rugby union legend Doddie Weir says a cure for MND should be found with the same urgency used to develop Covid vaccines.
The former Scotland and Lions hero was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2016.
Since then Doddie, 51, has raised more than £6million to research the incurable muscle-wasting illness.
He said: “Before Covid, it took years to get a drug to market... use the success of how quickly the vaccines were created to find a cure for MND.”
Doddie, who made 61 international appearances for Scotland, added: “I do enjoy challenging the professors and have asked some of them what is it that they have been doing for the past 30 years.
"Last month I said to one that they had told me there would be a difference within five years – but I told them that was three years ago now.”
A third of MND sufferers die within 12 months of being diagnosed.
Father of three Doddie, who lives on a farm in the Scottish borders, was given 18 months after his diagnosis.
Doddie’s charity the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation is an official partner of the British and Irish Lions Trust.
It is holding fundraising events during the team’s current tour of South Africa.
Fellow sufferers supporting Doddie in his campaign to fight MND include rugby league’s Rob Burrow MBE, 38, and ex-footballer Stephen Darby, 32.
