'My cramps turned out to be an incurable disease - now I could have just six months left to live'

A mother with motor neurone disease has defied doctors' diagnoses by passing her predicted maximum life expectancy – but might now have just six months left to live. Ailsa Malcolm-Hutton was diagnosed with the devastating illness back in 2013 when she was just 30-years-old.

The condition is a life-limiting, muscle-wasting disease which affects the sufferer’s ability to walk, talk, eat and eventually breathe. There is currently no cure and life expectancy after diagnosis is just two to five years.

Ailsa, from Davyhulme, first knew something was wrong when she began cramping in her thumbs and struggled to do her daughter’s hair for school. By the time she was eventually diagnosed, she could no longer use her arm and was forced to give up her job as a makeup artist.

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“When the consultant told me I had motor neurone disease (MND) I didn’t even know what it was – only the life expectancy and that I wouldn’t get fixed at all,” Ailsa, now 39, told the Manchester Evening News. “Not only this, but I was going to get much worse.

“I drove home in a daze after being given a leaflet on MND and was basically told there was nothing they could do. I arrived home and we were having a new boiler fitted and all the gas men were there and I just went straight outside and sat in the rain and cried. I think I stayed there all night.

“Then came the moment I dreaded most – telling my six-year-old daughter and not terrifying her at the same time. Somehow, I did it and made a pact with her that I wasn’t going to die. That keeps me strong nine years later.”

Ailsa is now unable to walk and has lost the use of her arms. She can only watch TV