The 29-year-old now relies on a wheelchair after confirming the problem
A man lost his ability to walk just two years after he first noticed symptoms of a degenerative disease while on his honeymoon. Jonny Butcher, 29, put the first warning sign of the condition down to a trapped nerve during his honeymoon in the Cotswolds.
Medical tests later confirmed he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neurone disease (MND), in February this year. By then, he could no longer walk without assistance and now relies on a wheelchair.
Jonny, a former insurance broker from Norwich in Norfolk, said: “On the first night of the honeymoon, I felt a pain in my shoulder, but I rested it and the pain went away. A few months later, I was getting tremors, and the tremors became more frequent as my coordination started to go.
“A month after I was diagnosed, I was no longer able to walk, even using a walking stick. Before my diagnosis, I had it in my mind that maybe I would regain my bodily functions and get better.
“After the diagnosis, it hit me very hard – realising that it won’t get better, and will in fact get worse. It’s scary not knowing what function I might lose next.”
Ana and Jonny connected in March 2023 through the Mormon dating app Mutual, despite Ana living in Brazil and Jonny in the UK. He travelled to see her later that year, and the following year, she came over to spend 90 days with him in Norwich, reports Cambridgeshire Live.
She moved to the UK in June 2024, and Jonny proposed — with the pair tying the knot on September 7, 2024. Just two days after walking down the aisle, during their honeymoon, Jonny noticed his shoulder pain.
Ana said: “MND was the last thing we wanted it to be. Getting the news was like the floor opening beneath my feet, and we fell into a very dark hole. But Jonny’s positivity helps. He is so positive and never complains.”
In January 2025, the couple moved into a new flat together, where he began experiencing tremors in his left hand, which worsened whenever he was fatigued. These were initially put it down to the stress of moving — but by April, the situation had become far more concerning.
He said: “The tremors became more frequent and I lost more strength in my left side. My coordination started to go too. I remember playing football with friends, and I was almost tripping over my own feet.”
He visited his GP and was referred for a spinal MRI scan, which returned clear, followed by a brain scan, which also showed nothing untoward. Yet they both knew something was seriously wrong.
Jonny said: “I said that my uncle had MND and perhaps there could be a link. At this point, the doctors thought I had functional neurological disorder (FND), and they gave me a physio who I did routines with – but it kept getting worse.”
The couple opted for private testing to diagnose MND after being unable to access it through the NHS, at a cost of £3,000. The results confirmed, in February 2026, that Jonny did indeed have MND, which was advancing rapidly.
He has started using a breathing machine for short periods each day in preparation for his lungs deteriorating further, following a recent respiratory test which revealed a decline in his lung capacity. Jonny has been informed he is at stage three of five in his MND progression – with stage five meaning he would have fewer than 12 months to live.
The couple are now ticking off items from his bucket list – and they have already returned to Ana’s hometown in Brazil to visit her family, met all the Norwich City FC players, and arranged a romantic getaway to Lake Como, Italy, for July. Ana said: “It really is the cruellest disease.
“Your mind stays the same, but your body just fades away. It’s so torturous to see my husband deteriorate every day. He’s slipping through my fingers, and I can’t do anything to hold onto him. I can’t imagine doing life without him.”