Westminster appeal over muscle disease

Karon Aldridge, of York, lost her mother Sylvia Hall last month just days after she told the Yorkshire Post how warnings about her muscle-wasting illness were ignored after she was admitted with a suspected broken knee.

Instead Mrs Hall, from Malton, North Yorkshire, was kept immobilised for weeks and her muscles wasted away.

She said: “I feel like my mother was failed in every single respect during her time in hospital. When she left, she came out in a wheelchair, unable to leave home for the last few months of her life.

“During her stay it was clear that staff had absolutely no understanding of her condition whatsoever.

“Today I want to hear what the NHS authorities are going to do to stop the system so catastrophically failing thousands of people with conditions like my mother’s. Why is this still happening and when is it going to stop?”

Nic Bungay, of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, said: “We need to see a national plan for care that ensures that expertise in muscle-wasting disease is shared across each region – otherwise there will be many more shocking cases like Sylvia’s ahead.”