Ed Slater said living in the present is helping him face the challenge of his motor neurone disease diagnosis.
The 34-year-old revealed last month that he had been diagnosed with the devastating degenerative condition that fellow former sports stars Doddie Weir, Rob Burrow and Len Johnrose are also battling.
Gloucester rugby player Slater announced his retirement from the sport last month after receiving the news following months of tests.
“It was month after month, my arm got weaker and weaker, my grip became weaker, and I went to Oxford and was diagnosed with MND,” Slater told the BBC.
“Part of me had prepared for that, partly because of the weakness and partly because of the symptoms. I know very close friends of mine who have lost a family member to it, was able to speak to them about his experiences and so I prepared myself.”
Slater, who has three young children, has already begun recording his voice in anticipation of the condition affecting his speech.
He is determined to stay positive, saying: “I’m not saying that makes it easier when you’re diagnosed – it absolutely doesn’t – but in some ways it had been 11 months of torment, different symptoms, not knowing, looking for different reasons, and to have definitive diagnosis – it sounds strange to say this – but at least it gave me an answer.
“Not an answer I wanted but I can’t change it. My attitude is to get on with things. There are difficult things in life, not many things harder than that, but you have to face challenges head on.
“I don’t think too far into the future and I take each day as it comes. I find that’s a peaceful place for me and keeps me in best spirits as I can.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here