MND... my dad and me

Soap villain on his father's battle with 'cruel disease'

- BY CHRISTINE SMITH

SHOWDOWN With Suranne Jones in Corrie in 2003 FLOORED With Zoe Henry in Emmerdale in 2017 CLOSE BOND Jonathan and Bill

FAMOUS as a soap villain in Emmerdale and Corrie, Jonathan Wrather says the most difficult role of his life was supporting his dad through his six-year battle with motor neurone disease.

"MND is a cruel disease," he tells the Mirror. "It wastes everything - even the muscles you don't see, those you use to breathe and speak."

As former England rugby union captain and 2003 World Cup winner Lewis Moody, 47, revealed his own MND diagnosis, Jonathan recalls how his dad Bill became bedridden and could no longer communicate.

Jonathan, 56, says: "MND is like cancer. It's indiscriminate."

Bill, who was one of around 5,000 people in the UK to have MND at any given time, had a slow-onset form of the disease and died in December 2023, aged 84.