‘I still have hope’ Football hero remains positive two years on from devastating motor neurone disease diagnosis

MARCUS STEWART feels like a scam, even though it’s anything but.

The Ipswich icon lives with motor neurone disease but can still drive and walk to the pub, while the horrific effects of the condition have yet to fully set in.

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It’s been more than two years since his diagnosis and Stewart’s right arm is starting to show the symptoms that first affected his left hand.

However, the 52-year-old former striker admitted: “Sometimes I feel a bit of a fraud.

“I’m fine. I’m in pretty good nick considering a lot of other people with MND. I can still have a pint, I can still walk, I can still drive.

“Life as it is hasn’t changed that much. You see other people with MND in their wheelchairs and they can’t talk so I hope it doesn’t come to me anytime soon.

“If there is no cure or treatment, then there will be, but I still have hope. I always live in hope.”

Despite his outward character, Stewart – who also played for Huddersfield, Sunderland and both Bristol clubs during a 20-year career in which he scored 222 goals – admits to the frustration of not being able to easily do the things he once did.

He no longer has a use for his bicycle and golf clubs. But he hopes to be around when a cure for MND is found, ideally before he has to sell his car.

Stewart added: “My wife will tell you I get mad when I can’t do something like take my socks off or put them on or open a jar or a can of beans, I can’t do that.

“I don’t like asking anybody. I’ve always been quite independent, so this frustrates me a lot.

“I have to adapt. I like to play golf, I like to run, I like to keep fit. I can’t do this anymore, it frustrates me.

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“Every symptom I have, it seems like I have to sell something because I can’t use a certain part of my body.

“I’ve sold my bike and golf clubs, but I haven’t had to sell my car yet.

“I know the day it has to will happen, it just happens a little slower for me.

“And I hope something happens before he comes. It’s unlikely, but I still have hope.

“I think I have a little time before there is some kind of cure or treatment. Hopefully in my time, that could happen.”

Stewart was at the finish line for Kevin Sinfield’s incredible 230 mile running challenge in the Saddleworth area of ​​Greater Manchester earlier this month.

Sinfield was a close friend of his Rob Burrowthe Super League icon who died in June following his battle with the disease and raised more than £1m for MND charities.

Stewart said: “It’s a big one, isn’t it? He’s just a great guy who really cares about people. In normal life, I think this is Kev.

“But he took it upon himself to really take care of us. He started with his colleague Rob and is giving hope to the other 5,000 people in the country who have MND.

“And the biggest thing that has given him through all of this is hope. That’s what he does, along with awareness and fundraising that goes a long way, hope comes hand in hand with that.

“If it’s money for scientists, for fundraising, for helping people, there has to be hope.”