AFTER his wife was diagnosed with motor neurone disease five years ago, a campaigner from Weaverham is calling on the Government to target £50 million of investment into the terminal illness.

Richard Webb has joined forces with a coalition of charities, neurologists and people with motor neurone disease as part of the campaign ‘to significantly increase targeted research for motor neurone disease (MND)’.

Government funding for MND research, according to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, currently stands at less than £5 million a year.

The charity itself has recently committed £5.7 million to research this year.

The campaign, United To End MND, led by the MND Association, MND Scotland, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, neurologists and people with the disease, is calling on the government to invest £50 million over five years in research directly targeted at understanding the causes and identifying potential treatments and ultimately a cure for the disease.

Richard said: “My wife, Kath, has MND and was diagnosed five years ago.

"Since then she has deteriorated to the point where she can do nothing for herself, although she has not (like so many sufferers) lost her voice and so is still able to ‘keep me in line’!

"The disease has no cure, has no periods of remission and kills more than 2,000 people a year with an average life span from diagnosis of two to three."

MND affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord which tell your muscles what to do.

This leads the muscles to weaken, stiffen and waste, and MND can affect how you walk, talk, eat, drink and, ultimately, breathe.

It is a terminal illness with no effective treatments or cure.

The petition launched by the coalition gathered more than 100,000 signatures in just three weeks, meaning the topic will now be considered for a debate in Parliament.

Visit mndassociation.org/unitedtoendMND.