This woman with MND can’t tell her family she loves them on Valentine’s Day

Imagine not being able to say “I love you” this Valentine’s Day. That’s the experience of most people with motor neurone disease (MND), among them Emma Fitzpatrick, a mother-of-two from Kinsale, Co Cork.

Emma was diagnosed in 2010 and can no longer walk or speak and communicates mainly with the use of an eye-controlled computer.

“This most cruel disease has taken with it the use of my upper and lower limbs. It has also taken my voice,” writes Emma, who met her husband Jonnie on the eve of Valentine’s Day 16 years ago.