Former England rugby captain Lewis Moody was overcome with emotion as he discussed his recent diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) during an interview with the BBC. The 47-year-old Leicester Tigers legend, who has two teenage sons with his wife Annie, made the “incredibly hard” announcement on Monday morning, admitting that the diagnosis he received a fortnight ago came as a “huge shock” to him and his family.
However, with their support, he has vowed to “continue to embrace life” while living with the disease. Speaking to BBC Breakfast’s Sally Nugent alongside Annie, Moody revealed that he discovered he had MND after experiencing some weakness in his shoulder while at the gym.
Despite undergoing physiotherapy, the issue persisted and subsequent scans revealed that nerves in his brain and spinal cord had been damaged by MND.
“You’re given this diagnosis of MND and we’re rightly quite emotional about it, but it’s so strange because I feel like nothing’s wrong,” he said. “I don’t feel ill. I don’t feel unwell.
“My symptoms are very minor. I have a bit of muscle wasting in the hand and the shoulder. I’m still capable of doing anything and everything. And hopefully that will continue for as long as is possible.
“There’s something about looking the future in the face and not wanting to really process that at the minute,” he added, as he spoke about facing the full implications of his condition. “It’s not that I don’t understand where it’s going. We understand that. But there is absolutely a reluctance to look the future in the face for now.”
Motor Neurone Disease claims the lives of a third of people with the condition within a year, and over half within two years of diagnosis, according to the MND Association. It makes swallowing and breathing more challenging, with treatment only slowing the process.
As he discussed the impact of the diagnosis on his family – including his mother and sons Dylan, 17, and Ethan, 15 – the former British and Irish Lions back-rower became emotional, as he admitted: “It’s never me that I feel sad for. It’s the sadness around having to tell my mum – as an only child – and the implications that has for her.
“[Telling my sons] was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. They are two brilliant boys and that was pretty heartbreaking. We sat on the couch in tears, Ethan and Dylan both wrapped up in each other, then the dog jumped over and started licking the tears off our faces, which was rather silly.
“There is no cure and that is why you have to be so militantly focused on just embracing and enjoying everything now,” he added.
“As Annie said, we’ve been really lucky that the only real decision I made when I retired from playing was to spend as much time with the kids as possible. We don’t get those years back.”