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I have motor neurone disease - and the money to find a breakthrough

21 June 2025


When he was diagnosed at 44, Tris Dyson knew he could still focus on his day job: awarding multimillion-pound prizes for scientific discovery

Tris Dyson knew something was wrong in June 2022 when he could not move his left thumb.

Six months later, aged just 44 and with a baby daughter, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). The muscles in his body were dying and he would, sooner or later, lose the ability to walk, speak and breathe.

"I was newly engaged. I'd bought a house. Things were going quite well. So to be told the party's over was not brilliant," recalls Dyson.

Today he considers himself "one of the lucky unlucky ones" as his physical decline is "relatively slow". Having being told he had four years to live, Dyson is in "pretty good shape", and thinks the doctor's prediction was wrong.