HOTEL WORKER THANKS CHARITY FOR SUPPORT AS
Sunday Mail email
After losing her partner, she is facing more heartbreak as her mum battles the muscle-wasting condition.
Vikki, 49, was devastated when Paul Smith passed away aged 53 after a brave two-year battle against MND.
Just over a year later, her beloved mum Linda, 83, was hospitalised following a fall and tests revealed she too had the terminal illness.
Now hotel worker Vikki, 49, from Edinburgh, has revealed the horror of having to watch two of her closest loved ones suffer.
She said: “Af ter my mum was diagnosed, I was in absolute disbelief. The doctor asked us if we’d ever heard of MND and I just said, ‘ Yes, actually, we are very familiar with it,’ as it was what Paul had died of.
“My mum was diagnosed exactly three years af ter Paul. She was extremely upset but more for me rather than herself.
“She knew how hard it had been caring for Paul and watching his progression with MND. She saw how difficult life was for Paul. She saw me try to feed him and she saw him relying on a ventilator to breathe.
“Before Paul was diagnosed, I didn’t know much about MND but I knew it was rare. Then to have two people I’m so close to affected by this horrible disease is incredibly hard to get my head around.”
Truck driver and martial arts instructor Paul – who had a daughter, Amy, 24, from a previous relationship – was diagnosed in December 2016.
Vikki said: “Paul was a big muscular guy and he started to see a bit of an indentation in the muscle in one shoulder. Because of his job as a truck