A new video from the Motor Neurone Disease Association has set out to tackle our preconceptions of MND. The short film, titled The Ride, features Luke celebrating his 38th birthday. All is going well, as normal as a birthday party can be, until Luke accidentally drops his bottle of beer.

We then see and hear something which we would expect to experience in a nightmare, as Luke embarks on a horrific roller coaster ride. In less than a minute, viewers are immersed in a two-year journey from the emergence of the first symptoms of Motor Neurone Disease until present day, his 40th birthday, when the disease has robbed Luke of his ability to walk, move and speak.

Luke can’t even communicate with his party guests or open the gift from his daughter.

The Ride, being rolled out across social media and online platforms, marks a new, bolder approach to awareness raising by the Association, asking people to share the news and the hashtag #TakeOverMND. The film doesn’t sugar coat the speed and severity in which MND can take over a person’s life.

Chris James, Director of External Affairs, said: “Motor neurone disease devastates lives, robbing those living with it of their ability to walk, move, communicate and ultimately to breathe. It pulls no punches. That’s what we believe The Ride does by putting the viewer in the position of someone who is living with MND. Unfortunately, that is the reality of the disease – any one of us could develop it at any stage of our adult lives.”

Shockingly, up to 5,000 people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are living with Motor Neurone Disease at any time. Every day six people are diagnosed with the disease and six people die from it. It kills a third of people within a year and over half within two years of diagnosis, and devastatingly, there is no cure.

The Ride is a scary look at the speed and aggression of Motor Neurone Disease, and is not the sort of ride any of us would like to experience.

For more information on #TakeOverMND and to donate visit http://www.takeovermnd.org

Tagged in