SINGAPORE - In 2021, Ms Siti Nur Sabrina Anis, 26, had to swop one set of wheels with another – her Yamaha motorcycle for a motorised wheelchair.

“I used to enjoy riding my motorcycle. It was a great way to de-stress,” said the secretary of charitable organisation Motor Neurone Disease Association Singapore (MNDaSG).

She was in her prime then at 22 when she was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord which control voluntary movements and muscle control. The disease causes these nerve cells to atrophy over time and a patient may lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe. There is no cure for ALS currently.

It started when Ms Sabrina had problems lifting the front part of each foot. This is known as foot drop and is often due to the compression of a nerve.

“It was at the end of 2021 when I sprained my ankle and I thought my gait was off because of that. However, all the doctors, all the physicians I consulted simply recommended rehabilitation or physiotherapy. They did not really think much about it,” she said.

Soon, it was more than her gait that was affected. The avid sports enthusiast who enjoyed trekking and rock climbing, suddenly could not jump or get up from squats and this unexpected onset of muscle weakness confused her.

Ms Sabrina, who was graduating from the National University of Singapore with a bachelor’s honours degree in Philosophy that year, did not really want to start working “without figuring out what was wrong”.

“I persisted until I found a polyclinic doctor who referred me to the hospital. It took quite a while – a whole semester which was around nine months – to finally get answers,” she said.

“It was hard to believe that anyone would take nine months to recover from a sprain. I could tell something wasn’t right with...