Motor Neurone Disease sufferer cycles to raise £60,000 despite being given months to live

CALUM FERGUSON says quite simply: “I should have died a few years ago.”

The Dunblane dad-of-three has Motor Neurone Disease and, soon after his 2010 diagnosis, he was given less than two years to live.

But now, almost five years later, he’s defied every prediction.

He has recovered to such an extent that he’s become a fundraising cycling sensation.

A bit of a weakness in his right hand was the first sign that Calum’s life was set to change forever.

“It was noticed at my company medical in 2009 but it was put down to just needing to do a bit of exercise,” Calum tells The Sunday Post.

“But when they did the strength test the following March it had grown weaker.

“ And there were other symptoms that led to a quick referral to the Southern General in Glasgow.

“The neurologists didn’t sugar-coat things. They told me I had MND and the life expectancy was short.”

Calum, who’s now 52, was just 46 at the time. In a remarkably matter-of-fact fashion, he admits his life and those of wife Elise and their three kids, then just 12, eight and seven, “changed dramatically”.

He continued for as long as possible with his job for an American fund management company and took as many family holidays as he could.

By the summer of 2012 though, wheelchair-bound and health failing, he admits all that had changed.

“I looked like I was in the final stages,” he says quietly.

“My breathing was bad, I was losing weight through not eating and I was struggling to speak.

“Things weren’t looking good.”

Calum’s philosophy had always been that he couldn’t change his lot and he just had to accept it and move on.

However, as the end of the year approached, so it seemed did the end of the line.

He was so ill that he was hospitalised and then moved to Strathcarron Hospice.

But around that lowest point, checks showed how oxygen-deprived he was and he was put on a ventilator.

A complex care package was put together including physiotherapy and the right equipment.

“I had to start eating, start breathing, start talking and fight to build myself up,” he explains.

With the right care and his can-do attitude, Calum’s fortunes turned round amazingly.

So much so that he got a rehab bike at the end of last year.

“I was amazed I could cycle to be honest,” he admits.

“I decided to raise some money and set a £10,000 target. I reached that in two weeks. I made it £20,000 and got there in two months.”

Since the start of this year he’s raised £60,000 and is now targeting £100,000.

All the money will buy specialist equipment that MND Scotland can loan out to the 470 people in the country with the illness.

He has also recently met with Health Secretary Shona Robison to talk about how they can be helped further.

“I remain terminally ill and no one expects me to survive more than six months but I’m going to keep going as long as I can,” he adds.

Visit justgiving.com/Calum-Ferguson1 or text CALC51 £10 to 70070.

Calum with a little help from his rehab bike has raised thousands for charity.