Actress looking to understand life with motor neurone disease

A woman living with motor neurone disease is helping actress Isla Blair to understand her new role.

Ms Blair is starring in The Company Man, a play by Torben Betts, in which she plays the part of a woman with the condition.

In a bid to understand more about the debilitating disease, Ms Blair met with Tina Fay, who was diagnosed with the illness in 2007.

Ms Fay was a ballet dancer and tennis coach before she developed the disease, but has since raised more than £40,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), to raise awareness of the condition.

Ms Blair said of the meeting: "I have based my characterisation on her, and through this we've become incredibly close.

"[She is] a completely inspirational person, and so positive."

According to research conducted by the MNDA, two people in every 100,000 people in the UK develop the disease each year.

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