I laughed at my husband’s ‘stupid mistake’ – it was the first sign of devastating motor neurone disease that hit at just 32

A shocking video clip has revealed the devastatingly subtle sign a young man had motor neurone disease aged just 32. 

Eric Brunner, from Philadelphia in the US, was running up to three miles a day at the onset of his symptoms in 2020.

But just months later the previously healthy artist, now 38, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — the most common form of motor neurone disease.

The muscle wasting condition is incurable and gradually stops patients being able to move, talk and even eat. 

ALS claimed the life of Sandra Bullock’s partner Bryan Randall in 2023 and the acclaimed scientist Stephen Hawking famously suffered from it.

Now in a video shared by his wife Allie on Instagram, Eric is captured attempting a workout move unsuccessfully, failing to co-ordinate his arms and legs as they both laugh. 

Taken weeks before his diagnosis, this loss of co-ordination was the first early sign he was suffering the condition. 

In the video, watched more than 2.4million times, she said: ‘Laughing because I thought he was uncoordinated in this move, not because he was two months away from a terminal diagnosis.

‘This is what early stages of ALS looks like. His legs were spasming and his reflexes so overactive he couldn’t correctly do this exercise. 

‘ALS was not on our radar yet and Eric hadn’t fully expressed just how worried he was about what was happening in his body.’

In another video—watched 159,000 times—posted earlier this month but also taken around the beginning of 2020, Allie is filming Eric struggling to hold a pair of weights. 

‘He doesn’t know it yet but that weakness in his hands is his first symptom of a terminal disease with no cure,’ she said. 

‘It has been five years since this video, feels like yesterday and also a lifetime ago. What I wouldn’t give to go back and not take a single thing for granted.

‘I am passionate about educating others on the nuances of this disease and giving people an understanding of what it looks like, to the best of my ability.’

ALS is a rare condition that progressively damages parts of the nervous system.  

Along with twitches, cramps and muscle weakness are among the early signs of the condition, along with slurred speech and weight loss.

There is no cure but doctors can provide treatments to help reduce the impact it has on a person’s life.

Eric was only diagnosed with the condition after seeking medical attention for the weakness in his hands and loss of co-ordination. 

On his own Instagram account, Eric—an accomplished painter who now relies on a power wheelchair to get around—shares images of the artworks he creates using digital sculpting, eye tracking technology and 3D printing. 

In one post he said: ‘Some days are harder than others. Something like a chest cold, so simple for those unaffected, can really bring you down, remind you your physical strength is leaving you little by little. 

‘Something like coughing up that stubborn tickle in your throat, so simple in theory yet growing increasingly harder. 

‘Seeing friends fighting this same fight not catching any breaks, just hit after hit. 

‘Sometimes it feels like it can break you, but that’s what strengthens my purpose to fight, for all of us facing ALS.’

Around 5,000 adults in the UK have ALS and there is a one in 300 risk of developing the condition over the course of a person’s life.

Life expectancy for about half of those with the condition is between just two and five years from the onset of symptoms. But these can worsen rapidly.

Some people may live for up to 10 years, and, in rarer circumstances, even longer. 

The exact cause is largely unknown, but current research points towards a complex interplay of genetic, environmental, and possibly lifestyle factors—and it often hits seemingly fit and healthy people. 

Last year, Leeds Rhinos star Rob Burrow, 41, died after a four-and-a-half-year battle with the condition.

Locked-in syndrome (LIS) is a rare neurological disorder that can also occur in some progressive cases of ALS.