When a 23-year-old Beverly Aspin had a cancerous lump removed from her leg in 2003, she breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Brian Wynn was diagnosed with cancer of the kidneys and lungs in 2009.

Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks the motor neurones leading to weakness and wasting of muscles, increasing loss of mobility in limbs, and difficulties with speech, swallowing, breathing and cognitive processes.

There isn’t much let up when you’re living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Short on breath, short on energy and susceptible to infection, it is an illness that can make even the simplest daily tasks hard work.

Harrogate schoolboy, Sam, had such a close relationship with his grandma that mum Lisa Hunter said they seemed to have their own language.