GMB star reaches out to Lewis Moody after losing her dad to motor neurone disease

Charlotte Hawkins issued a heartfelt statement to Lewis Moody and his family on Monday morning following his MND diagnosis. The sports star, 47, admitted as he shared the news that he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease that he is not yet ready to face up to the full implications of the diagnosis, which took the lives of fellow rugby stars Doddie Weir and Rob Burrow.

Good Morning Britain star Charlotte, 50, who lost her father to the condition a decade ago and is now an ambassador for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, made a special appearance on Monday's edition of the ITV programme to send her condolences to the England rugby star and his family.

She said: "It is a shocking, devastating illness to get and my heart goes out to Lewis Moody and his family. He spoke there about having to break to the news to his children. I remember when my dad told us and my first thought was [about] looking for a cure, we will get you through this.

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"And I very quickly realised there isn't a cure, there aren't effective treatments that can help you with this. The sad thing is a third dying within a year of diagnosis and more than half die two years after diagnosis.

"There are still big questions as to why big questions about why so many elite sports are being diagnosed. They're doing studies right now to find out what is going on. My heart goes out to them and I send them all my love this morning."

There's something about looking the future in the face and not wanting to really process that at the minute," he told the BBC. "It's not that I don't understand where it's going. We understand that. But there is absolutely a reluctance to look the future in the face for now."

Moody was part of England's iconic 2003 World Cup winning squad alongside the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Matt Dawson, Jason Robinson and Martin Johnson.

But he now faces the biggest battle of his life. Moody first noticed something wrong when feeling some weakness in his shoulder while at the gym.

He underwent physio but the problem did not go away, and a series of scans then revealed nerve damage in his brain and spinal cord by MND.

"You're given this diagnosis of MND and we're rightly quite emotional about it, but it's so strange because I feel like nothing's wrong," he added.

"I don't feel ill. I don't feel unwell. My symptoms are very minor. I have a bit of muscle wasting in the hand and the shoulder.

Speaking alongside his wife, Annie, Moody revealed his biggest worry is his family, including his sons Ethan and Dylan, aged 15 and 17 respectively.

"It's never me that I feel sad for," he said. "It's the sadness around having to tell my mum - as an only child - and the implications that has for her."

"It [telling his sons] was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. They are two brilliant boys and that was pretty heartbreaking.

"We sat on the couch in tears, Ethan and Dylan both wrapped up in each other, then the dog jumped over and started licking the tears off our faces, which was rather silly."

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