The good news is that it isn’t a degenerative condition, though it can be as physically debilitating and life limiting as MS and other neurological diseases. The bad news is that it’s a condition for which there is no known cure, and that requires much more research. Some sufferers get better and others don’t. Some end up in wheelchairs, on incapacity benefits, unable to work or have any quality of life.

I’m in the middle. I’ve managed to rehabilitate enough to have a reasonable (but somewhat limited) quality of life, but every day I’m battling varying levels of chronic pain, fatigue, breathlessness and an overreactive central nervous system, among other symptoms. There are still days when I can have difficulty walking or with my balance, but thankfully these are much less frequent.

Despite all this, and with incredible support from the people who love me, I’ve managed to come through this real-life nightmare fairly unscathed mentally and emotionally. And I’ve found a positive: my passion for novel writing. I actually started writing my first novel (very slowly!) as part of my rehabilitation, to get my cognitive and physical functions working again. So, as far as I’m concerned, I’ve been lucky. But I can see how, without the right support networks, it would be easy for someone with a chronic illness to become isolated, unemployed, and if things got really bad, homeless.

When I started writing Take A Moment, I didn’t intend to write a biography, but I did want to draw on my experience to raise awareness of neurological illness as well as tell a good story. I chose to write about a character with MS so that it wasn’t too close and because many of the symptoms I experience overlap. It was important to me to get across what it feels like to have your life suddenly shattered, while at the same time keeping the story light and humorous enough that readers could easily engage with it.

Alex’s song within the story – also named Take a Moment – is in fact a song I wrote, with help from a brilliant musician called Willie Glass, when I was a good way through my rehabilitation. It’s a recognition of the struggles many people experience in life, while others live theirs as if on autopilot. It’s a message to be kind, to care and to open our eyes to what’s going on around us – and to make a difference where we can.

Since writing the song, it has been my goal to do something with it. As well as giving it a home within my novel, I’ve used my own money to get it recorded professionally, and the difference I would like to make is to raise some money through music streaming and downloads to support two very important charities: The MS Society and FND Hope.

During the process of receiving my diagnosis, I spent a short time on a neurology ward and I witnessed some of the saddest, most heart wrenching sights I’ve ever seen. It really is one of the cruellest types of illness a person can experience.