Igoogled my symptoms and the first thing that came up was Stephen Hawking – that was when the dread truly settled in (Picture: Debbie Whitehouse)

I looked down at the whirring hair dryer in my hand, perplexed.

I was a hairdresser – I spent my days styling and cutting hair, but suddenly my right arm felt so weak, I couldn’t hold the hair dryer up a second longer. It was as if it were made of lead.

At first, I thought I’d slept funny. Or maybe I was getting older and weaker – especially since it was the lightest dryer on the market.

I knew at that moment that something really wasn’t right.

It wasn’t the first time I’d had trouble with my strength. The signs had started six months earlier when I couldn’t push myself out of the bath easily.

I’d been struggling to hold the hair dryer for

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