Motor neurone disease impacts nerves located in the brain and spine, which tell your muscle tissue how to function.
This causes them to weaken and become rigid over time and usually affects how you walk, speak, eat and breathe.
It is a relatively rare disease that is most common in people over 50, but adults of any age can be impacted.
An individual's lifetime risk of contracting MND is one in 300.
About 5,000 people in the UK are living with the disease at any given moment.
Scientists are not sure the cause of MND, but it is probable to be a mix of the genes - or inherited characteristics - you get from your mother and father when you are born, and other lifestyle factors.
For up to one in 10 individuals with MND, particular genetic factors are far more significant.
There is usually a hereditary background of the illness in such instances.
MND impacts each person uniquely.
Not all individuals has the identical signs, or experiences them in the same order.
The disease can advance at different speeds too.
Some of the most frequent signs are:
No definitive treatment, but there is hope stemming from treatments focused on various types of MND.
MND is not a single illness - it is actually several that result in the death of motor neurones.
A new drug called tofersen works in only one in 50 individuals, however it has been demonstrated to decelerate - and in certain instances even reverse - a portion of the manifestations of MND.
It has been referred to as "absolutely groundbreaking" and a "real moment of hope" for the entire condition.
Even though the drug has recently been approved in the European Union, it is not currently accessible in the UK.
Just one drug presently approved for the treatment of MND in the UK and approved by the NHS.
Riluzole could decelerate the advancement of the disease and increase survival by a few months, but it does not reverse damage.
Certain individuals can live for many years with MND, such as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who was identified at the twenty-two years old and lived to 76.
But for most, the illness advances rapidly and life expectancy is just a few years.
Based on the charity MND Association, the condition claims the lives of a one-third of individuals within a twelve months and over 50% within 24 months of diagnosis.
As the nerve cells stop working, ingestion and breathing become more challenging and many people need nutritional support or respiratory aids to help them stay alive.
The exact cause has not yet been found, but top-level sportspeople seem overrepresented by MND.
A pair of research projects from 2005 and 2009 showed that soccer players have an elevated chance of contracting MND.
Research from 2022 by the University of Glasgow involving 400 former Scotland rugby athletes concluded they had an higher likelihood of acquiring the condition.
Researchers additionally discovered that rugby players who have experienced repeated head injuries have biological differences that could render them more susceptible to developing MND.
The MND Association recognizes there is a "correlation" between contact sports and MND.
It noted that while the sportspeople studied were had a greater chance to develop MND, it did not show the sports directly caused the disease.
The organization also stresses that "reported MND cases in these studies is still relatively low, and so determining there is a certain elevated chance could be misunderstood if this is simply a grouping due to statistical coincidence".
Several prominent sports figures have been diagnosed with the condition in recent years.
These include former rugby union players, soccer players, and cricket athletes.
In the United States, MLB athlete Lou Gehrig succumbed to the condition aged 39.
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