1.

Stephen Hawking
A theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, cosmologist, and eminent scientist, Stephen Hawking
was diagnosed with ALS at age 21: he was given 2 more years to live. He lived until he was 76-
years-old.

He had been paralyzed from head to toe for over thirty years and used a voice synthesizer to be
able to communicate, and a wheelchair that he operated through slight movements of the head
and eyes.

None of this prevented him from developing his activity as an exemplary researcher and
professor, and intense personal life that allowed him to make his illness known to the world.

Becoming one of the most recognizable celebrities of our time, his story was taken to the cinema
in the film "The Theory of Everything"

2. Yes I have a few times…

But the one that really sticks in my mind are conversations I had with my now deceased

She was diagnosed with Cancer and initially there was possibilities of operations once they were able
to pinpoint the main cancer…

But it took them too long to do testing almost 3 months by which time the cancer had spread and she
was terminal…

We had the deepest most heart wrenching conversations both of us trying to be brave for the other…
there's something about a no win situation that takes everything back to the bare threads of thing's the
utter despair and hopelessness….

Every day she would be so grateful for another day even though she was in immense pain she just
wanted to live..

The long nights of holding her as she lay curled up like a baby crying and trying to understand what
she had done to deserve the situation she was in…our roles had been reversed and the once strong
invincible force of nature that was my mum was like a lost little girl I cradled in my arms until she
managed to sleep…

Those conversations will stay with me forever