A woman who had just started her "dream job" as a nurse now fears she will be in a wheelchair in a few months as she has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Rachel Browne, 33, spoke of the heartbreak of having to learn she had the "horrendous disease", which causes muscles to deteriorate over time, shortening one's life as there is still no cure.
Rachel described the shock of receiving the diagnosis just a few months into her "dream job" and as she was saving to buy a new house with her partner of three years.
She now feels like her life "has been stolen" by the disease, which affects the brain and nervous system and of which people can die after just a few years.
Rachel, from Etal Lane, Newcastle, first noticed symptoms in February this year when she started dropping things with her right hand.
“I didn’t really think it was anything at first,” she said.
“But my grip started getting very weak, then I started getting out of breath very easily, struggling to talk sometimes.
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“I worked with babies so I was getting up and down off the floor a lot and I found that very difficult.
“Then in July I started to notice my balance was off and I was tripping over.”
After several hospital appointments and numerous scans which failed to identify a problem, Rachel went to see a doctor earlier this month.
She said: “He told me I’d been sent there for a routine test to check for a trapped nerve, but that he could tell straight away it wasn’t.
“About a week later I got an appointment and got told straight away it was motor neurone disease.
“I was already pretty sure in my own mind that’s what it was.
“I already expected the worst but was hoping for the best. I burst out crying when they told me.”
Rachel said: “There isn’t really any medication or treatment. Some people only live for a couple of years.
“I’ve enquired about a clinical trial so I’m hoping it won’t be too long before one opens.
“In the meantime I booked a holiday yesterday, I’m going to book a skydive - I’m trying to do as much as I can while I can, because I’ll
probably be in a wheelchair in a few months.”
She added: “I’d just started my dream job a few months ago, we were saving for a house, things were starting to get back to normal after Covid - and then this happened.
“A lot of the time I’m okay - I try to keep busy to keep my mind off it, but a little thing can just trigger it and I just start crying.”
Rachel’s brother Liam has now started an online fundraising page to help Rachel make as many memories as possible in the time she has.
Liam, 29, said: “I have three kids and Rachel is so close to them. They absolutely adore her, you couldn’t ask for a better auntie.
“I can’t imagine things without her. I can't even begin to describe how I feel, every day I wake up and hope it was all a big dream but
the reality sets in again.”
To donate follow this link here.
