What a difference a year makes. This time last summer Chris was working on the farm with no signs of MND. Looking back he was always very tired, but I put that down to the long hours he worked. There were no other signs of there being anything wrong.
Last year we were making silage and harvesting barley in the late summer to feed the cattle in the winter and to provide their bedding. This summer some of the fields that grew corn or grass have been rented out to the daffodil growers as it is no longer feasible to farm that way any more. Chris can no longer work like he did. Last summer we were rearing suckler calves and keeping them until they were finished, this year we are having to sell them in the autumn as stores as we won`t have the feed or man power to keep them over the winter.
Last year Chris could walk any where on the farm (250 acres give or take) checking cattle. This morning he stood watching some friends who took the axle off his TR7 to repair it for him and that short time of standing up meant he could barely speak at dinner time and was exhausted.
We are lucky because we can find other ways to make a living with the farm, but because of MND we have had to completely change the way we do it. It doesn`t just affect the person who has it either, it has a ripple effect touching every one who knows that person. In our case it was impossible for Chris`s brother to manage the farm on his own and employing somone who would or could work the hours Chris did, well that wasn`t financially viable. The only way to survive was to change.
MND must affect everyone who has it and their families in some kind of way, not just the disease itself, but the repercussions of it. It changes lives in the short term and it changes lives forever.
With MND there is no halting it and no reversing it. Once started, its journey is like a runaway train, you are just never sure when it will eventually derail you.
With MND there is no going back.
