Neale Daniher is staying strong instead of fearing death after being diagnosed with the incurable motor neurone disease (MND).
Daniher played 82 games with Essendon and coached Melbourne for 10 years, including the 2000 AFL grand final.
The 53-year-old first noticed something was amiss last year when he started to struggle while hanging the washing up.
"I thought, well I've got a weakness in my hands and I'll fix it," Daniher tells Seven Network in an interview on Monday night.
Nine months later, Daniher was coming to grips with a crippling disease he previously knew little about.
"On average it (life expectancy after diagnosis) is two to four years to live, but I might bump that average up," he said.
"I am going OK, going strong.
"You don't cope by fear, and you don't cope by thinking where will all this end up.
"Laughter is the best medicine - and it is the only medicine I have got at the moment, so I am going with it."
Daniher joined West Coast in 2008 but will return to Melbourne at the end of the current season to be closer to his family.
He opened up about the "anonymous killer" in an interview with former teammate Tim Watson.
"Part of the tragedy of the disease is that you are a witness of your body dying," he said, seeking to raise awareness.
"But every 12 hours someone gets MND in Australia, and every 12 hours someone dies. It's an anonymous killer. Not many people know about it.
"There is no prevention, no treatment, no cure - and that is why I am talking because we need to find some prevention, treatment or cure."
Daniher will enlist the help of the AFL and clubs to help raise MND awareness and research funds.
Demons co-captain Nathan Jones will be among the faces in a TV campaign.
"It was really good to have a chat to him (recently). He was my first coach and gave me my debut," Jones said of Daniher.
"He was really positive.
"Motor neurone disease is a pretty close thing to my heart as well. My grandpa passed away from it, a bit of a different strand of it."
