Motor neurone disease (MND) is a condition that affects the brain and nerves.
Motor neurons – a diverse group of cells located in the brain and spinal cord – carry movement instructions throughout the body. When a person develops MND, messages from the motor neurons stop reaching the body’s muscles, leading them to weaken, stiffen and waste.
MND can affect a person’s ability to walk, talk, eat, drink and breathe. It gets worse over time and is life-shortening, although it affects people differently. Some people also experience changes to their mental capacity.
There is no cure, although symptoms can be managed to minimise the impact on a person’s life, and some people live with the condition for many years.
There is a 1 in 300 risk of getting MND across a person’s lifetime and it affects up to 5,000 people in the UK at any one time.
It can affect people of any age, but is more common in people aged 50-years-old and above.
