About Motor Neurone Disease

What is MND?

Motor neurones are responsible for activating every voluntary muscle in the human body.  When they degenerate they fail to send messages from the brain to the muscles. The muscles, through lack of stimulus, rapidly become weak and waste away.

The prognosis for MND sufferers

As MND progresses sufferers become unable to walk, use their hands, swallow food or talk.  They become trapped inside a paralysed body unable to care for themselves or communicate. Unfortunately this lack of independence and this isolation is why MND is the most common reason for people choosing euthanasia. The average life expectancy is 3 years from first symptoms and 20 months from diagnosis. There is no specific test for motor neurone disease and no effective treatment.

Who can get MND?

The age of onset of MND ranges from 20-90 years but is most common from 40-70 years. Males are twice as likely as females to suffer.