Mind Over Matter

This year, Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Awareness Day is on Friday 21st June 2024. The day raises awareness of the disease and both honours and celebrates the MND community, showcasing personal stories of courage and resilience, and inspiring others to do the same. It affects more than 5,000 adults in the UK at any one time, and MND kills a third of people within a year and more than half within two years of diagnosis.

This month it was announced the former rugby player, Rob Burrow CBE had died following his diagnosis of MND in 2019, from which he was given only 2 years to live. The BBC shared that he campaigned relentlessly to raise money to spread awareness of the disease with his best friend and former team-mate, and together they raised more than £15m in less than five years.

MND affects the nerves known as motor neurones, and these nerves are found in the brain and spinal cord and they help tell your muscles what to do. MND leads the muscles to weaken, stiffen and waste, which can affect how you walk, talk, eat, drink and breathe. Not all symptoms will affect everyone, and they can progress at varying speeds making the disease difficult to predict.

The below symptoms will not affect everyone, each individual may have some or all the symptoms listed:

• muscle weakness, with movement and mobility problems

• muscle cramps and spasms, limiting range of movement

• pain or discomfort, as a result of other symptoms

• speech and communication problems, affecting how to speak, gesture and show expression

• swallowing difficulties, affecting eating and drinking

• saliva problems

• weakened coughing, making it harder to clear the throat

• breathing problems, leading to breathlessness and fatigue

• emotional lability

• changes to thinking and behaviour

MND is life-shortening and there is no cure. Although the disease will progress, symptoms can be managed to help achieve the best possible quality of life.

Contact your GP if you have any health concerns or any of the listed symptoms. MND is not a common disease and your GP can usually work out if there is a general health problem or injury. It can be difficult to reach a diagnosis of MND in the very early stages, so this process can take time and often relies on seeing how symptoms progress.