When city accountant, fitness instructor and successful nutritional therapist Alex Gibson received a diagnosis for motor neurone disease (MND) in 2019 at the age of 39, the news came as a huge blow. Alex had always been fit, active and healthy, and spent his free time conquering the world of sport. He played rugby to national level 1 for three clubs and was always heavily involved in athletics, having competed for Great Britain in the decathlon and ranking in the top 10 globally for Concept 2 Rowing.
With no family history of MND, he had started to notice symptoms around two years prior to his diagnosis, deteriorating speech, cramps, foot drop and increased spasticity were among his first symptoms, and Alex strongly believes that the onset was down to “athletes curse”, the thinking that huge amounts of intense exercise can contribute to MND.
Alex said: “It was incredibly hard work – and still is – but moving to the final stages of the grief cycle (shock, denial, anger, grief, depression and acceptance) was truly key to moving forward”.
