Youngest sufferer tells of delight at giving birth despite her illness

People:

A Moray woman with motor neurone disease has defied the odds to become one of a handful of sufferers worldwide to give birth.

Lucy Lintott, and partner Tommy Smith, welcomed baby LJ into the world at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital at 7am on Thursday.

The 25-year-old is one of just a handful of recorded MND sufferers who have successfully given birth.

Speaking to the Sunday Post, after a gruelling 15 hours in labour, she said: “When he came out and they put him on to my chest, I just started bawling my eyes out.

“They were such happy tears. He is pretty perfect. It is still very surreal.

“Now I understand what people say about the love you feel for your baby.

“I can’t really describe it. I just want to do everything for him,” she said of LJ, who weighed in at 7lb 3.5oz.

Looking to the future, his mother, who is confined to a wheelchair, is planning her future wedding and spending time with her beloved family.

She added: “I promised Tommy that I could do this, that we’d both make it – the baby and me.

“He’s told me how lucky we are and how proud he is that I kept my promise.”

LJ’s birth has attracted messages of support from across Scotland including Scottish rugby legend Doddie Weir, who is also battling the illness.

He shared the news on Twitter with the comment: “Well Done”.

The prominent charity campaigner was studying business at college when she was diagnosed with the condition at the age of 19 – the youngest person in Scotland to have the incurable condition

Ms Lintott was told that the average life expectancy for someone is three years after they begin

JOY: MND sufferer Lucy Lintott with her partner Tommy Smith and the couple’s first child, baby boy LJ

showing the symptoms of the condition. But the Garmouth woman put together a “bucket list” of goals, with her chief aim being to raise £100,000 for

MND Scotland to help find a cure for the illness.

She achieved that target at the start of 2016, and the following year, she spread her message of hope across

the nation during a BBC documentary entitled MND and 22-year-old Me.

It was in September that she broke the news that she and Mr Smith – whom she

met while at school – were expecting their child.

Further information about her fundraising for MND Scotland can be found at lucysfight.com