Motor neurone disease, occurs when specialist nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord called motor neurones stop working properly. For a person with motor neurone disease communicating, swallowing, breathing and moving can be very difficult and eventually these activities become impossible. There's currently no cure for motor neurone disease. It's not clear what causes motor neurones to stop working properly. There is a 1 in 300 risk of getting MND across a lifetime and affects up to 5,000 adults in the UK at any one time. MND It can affect adults of any age, but is more likely to affect people over 50. Life expectancy for about half of those with the condition is three years from the start of symptoms. However, some people may live for up to 10 years, and in rarer circumstances even longer. Living with motor neurone disease is extremely challenging and often a terrifying possibility before the diagnosis is made. This condition is something very close to mine and my family's heart, having lost my Auntie to this cruel disease. My Auntie Jane was a a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife and a new Nan. She touched countless lives. From teaching children to read who didn’t think they would be able, to teaching a girl to swim who suffered such anxiety she couldn’t bear to be near the pool. She travelled the world, she connected with so many people and she impacted so many lives. The woman who always wanted to know how you are and what you were doing. The woman who celebrated your small triumphs as if they were the only thing that mattered. The kindest woman I’ve ever known. On the 9th January 2016 a sore leg and limp she was suffering from got diagnosed as the cruellest disease, Motor Neurone disease. She battled each day with bravery and she never complained. Even in agonising pain she refused to let it consume her. On 22nd November 2018 we lost her to this disease. I am taking on this huge challenge in her memory, to raise what I can to help those who have to live through MND and to support their families through this confusing and heartbreaking time. Anything you can donate, no matter how small, will mean so much to me and my family.

Thank you for setting up this memorial to Auntie Jane. We hope that you find it a positive experience developing the site and that it becomes a place of comfort and inspiration for you to visit whenever you want or need to.

I am I and you are you, whatever we were to each other that we still are. Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? Life means all that it ever meant, it is the same as it ever was.