SHANAE Davison was inspired to take up football again after her grandfather, Les Noble, passed away with motor neurone disease.

The pair had bonded over the game through the years, with Davison having played as a kid in primary school in Broome, before Les passed away when Davison was "about 15 or 16".

It gave Davison the impetus to return to the game, having focused on basketball as a young teenager.

A friend playing for local Perth club Noranda Hawks was on the hunt for new players, so Davison tagged along, before receiving a lovely message of sorts from her grandad.

"I joined really late, I think it was two weeks before the season began. They said, 'this is the last number left in your size'," Davison told AFL.com.au.

"And I picked it up, and it was Grandad's number, number 11.

"I'm actually number 11 now at Brissy (Brisbane Lions), so it's a beautiful full-circle moment. Mum got to fly over last year, my first at the club (previously playing for West Coast), and present it to me.

"It was a really special moment. She got up in front of the group and said a piece about what it means to us and our family. It's really nice to have him on my back at all times."

Noble lived in Kununurra, a small town close to the northern border between Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Davison used to travel from Broome, and later Perth, to visit her grandad.

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"He was a truck driver who lived in Kununurra. The first thing you'd do when you'd visit is sit down and watch the footy. He was actually a mad Geelong Cats fan, so my first jersey was a massive Cats one that came down to my ankles," she said.

"He was a larrikin, a very happy man. He didn't take life too seriously. When I look at the way I am, I definitely have a lot of my grandad in me, a relaxed, take-things-as-they-come person.

"He was probably the one for me – when I think about footy and where I am now, him getting sick was the drive for me to get back into footy and play it again.

"You'd go over for a barbecue, the footy would be on, and we'd just sit there and talk footy for hours, the gameplay and the players themselves. I think I developed my knowledge of the game and footy smarts from just sitting there and chatting to him about it."

Noble was initially diagnosed with throat cancer and stayed with Davison and her family in Perth while receiving treatment.

He once again fell seriously ill just six months later, and was flown to Darwin, where tests confirmed a diagnosis of MND.

MND is an umbrella term for a number of diseases that affect the upper and lower motor neurons. The upper nerves are in the brain and connect with the lower ones in the spinal cord, which send signals to activate muscles.

Those with MND see their motor neurons become damaged and die, meaning muscles weaken, and they lose their ability to walk, talk, swallow and breathe, but most people's minds remain clear.

Life expectancy from diagnosis varies, in part due to the number of conditions that fall under the banner of MND, but the average is just 27 months.

"Pretty much the only thing the hospital could really do was give us a pamphlet to take home and read, saying 'we don't have much information around it, and there's no cure'," Davison said.

"I think it was just under a year from when he got diagnosed to when he passed away. It really hit his neck – he couldn't eat, drink or talk, and that was probably the big one for me.

"He couldn't crack jokes anymore. It just takes away from your life.

"He had been really fit and healthy, Mum would tell me stories about him getting up and going to casually swim a couple of K's, then going for a run. It's crazy how it can just affect anyone, it doesn't matter how fit or unfit you are.

"As a 15, 16-year-old, it's hard, because you know exactly what's happening, but emotionally, you don't know how to deal with it.

"He wanted to go back to Kununurra and live out his normal life. He was stubborn in that way. But he wanted to live as normally as he could, so that's what he did."

The Big Freeze is an awareness and fundraising campaign for MND, instigated by former champion Essendon player and Melbourne coach Neale Daniher, who was diagnosed himself in 2013.

Now in its 11th year, Monday's King's Birthday clash between Melbourne and Collingwood serves as the showcase for fundraising efforts, which has seen the FightMND foundation funnel an astonishing $115 million into research for treatment, and ultimately, a cure.

Davison herself reached out to share her story, keen to bring FightMND and AFLW together.

"It's just the connection to the Big Freeze and bringing the W world into that. It's the most important thing for me, and having those connections and bringing those two worlds together. I wanted to share my family's story and what this round means to us," she said.

"We would always joke that I was going to get drafted, whether it was with the boys or if there's a girls comp. We always had that joke, and now I'm actually playing AFLW. He would love this."