Awareness Week

June 20 to 28 Motor Neurone Awareness Week

The Motor Neurone Disease Association is posting billboards on many station platforms in the Northwest, including Chester station, as part of the Motor Neurone Awareness Week (June 20 to 28).
The posters will be on display from June 15 for two weeks and show a picture of Sarah Ezekial, who was diagnosed with this debilitating degenerative disease in April 2000 when she was 34 years old and seven months pregnant.
Details are also given on the poster of a link to www.sarahsstory.org.uk, a shocking and disturbing short film which shows the physical deterioration sufferers often undergo. The film was deemed too shocking for TV but was shown in some cinemas in the area (including Vue at Cheshire Oaks) and can now be viewed online.

General information relating to MND

Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks the upper and lower motor neurones. Degeneration of the motor neurones leads to weakness and wasting of muscles, causing increasing loss of mobility in the limbs, and difficulties with speech, swallowing and breathing.
In recent years there is evidence to suggest the incidence of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is increasing. This could possibly be due to more accurate diagnostic testing. Also, as people are generally living for longer, the incidence of a disease more common in older people will continue to increase.

MND Statistics

Motor Neurone Disease is not infectious or contagious.
It can affect any adult at any age but most people diagnosed with the disease are over the age of 40, with the highest incidence occurring between the ages of 50 and 70.
Men are affected approximately twice as often as women.
The incidence or number of people who will develop MND each year is about two people in every 100,000.
The prevalence or number of people living with MND at any one time is approximately seven in every 100,000.

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