Vital packs to help experts diagnose rare muscle disease (From This Is Lancashire)

Vital packs to help experts diagnose rare muscle disease

9:25am Tuesday 9th October 2012 in News

DOCTORS, dentists, opticians and pharmacists throughout Bolton are to receive information packs to help them diagnose the potentially fatal and rare muscle weakness disease, myasthenia gravis (MG).

Thanks to funding from the Big Lottery Fund, the Myasthenia Gravis Association will supply the packs — containing interactive CD-Roms and booklets — to Bolton and the surrounding areas.

Karl Parr, the Bolton and North Manchester branch chairman, said: “These packs are an essential tool to help professionals recognise the early signs of MG and get the appropriate treatments and support more quickly.”

Myasthenia gravis affects all voluntary muscles and can cause disability and, in extreme cases, prove fatal.

The condition often affects the eyes in the early stages of the disease and patients can experience double vision and some difficulties when undergoing dental work.

One of the most high-profile sufferers was three-times world snooker champion John Spencer, pictured, from Radcliffe. He was forced to quit his snooker career in 1984 because of the condition. He died in 2006 after a three-year battle with cancer, complicated by myasthenia gravis.