Living with motor neurone disease

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Former England ruby captain Lewis Moody recently revealed he had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), and our conversations give an insight into how lives can be overturned by this muscle wasting condition. Dr Mehboob in Canada was diagnosed five years ago and is now paralysed from the neck down. He is joined in conversation by his wife, Sophie, and Evy in Belgium, whose dad died last year 46 years after his diagnosis. MND is incurable. Over time, muscles weaken, affecting movement, speech eating and breathing. People over 50 are most likely to get the disease but there is evidence that elite athletes are also disproportionately affected. We bring together Narayana in India with James and Gillian in the UK, who were all diagnosed in their 30s, to share their experiences of living with the condition.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:09.0	Hello, I'm Rahul Tandon.
0:11.1	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:14.9	In BBCOS conversations, we bring people together to share their experiences.
0:20.5	This time, what's it like to live with motor neurone disease?
0:26.1	Lewis Moody won 71 England caps during his England rugby career.
0:31.0	Part of the 2003 Rugby World Cup winning side,
0:35.0	he was nicknamed Mad Dog in honour of his fearless and relentless
0:38.8	approach to the game. A few weeks ago, the 47-year-old began to experience muscle weakness
0:45.9	during training in the gym. Scans revealed he had motor neurone disease. We processed lots of
0:52.9	emotions over the last couple of weeks,
0:55.6	and I suppose when you talk about it,
0:57.2	it's never me that I feel sad for.
0:59.1	It's the sort of sadness around having to tell my mum,
1:02.4	you know, as an only child,
1:04.1	and the implications that has for her,
1:06.9	having to tell the boys.
1:08.1	I mean, you know, two brilliant boys.
1:11.5	And that was pretty heartbreaking, wouldn't it?
1:15.3	But yeah, the future's uncertain at the minute, I suppose, isn't it?
1:19.9	So that's why we're just focused on now.
1:24.3	Lewis Moody speaking to the BBC earlier this month.
	...

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