At first, David Balfour thought he was suffering nothing more than a trapped nerve from the gym.

Then on a trip to London he began noticing other unusual changes: he suddenly found it difficult to walk and his speech became slurred.

When his hands started shaking uncontrollably, the 42-year-old knew something was seriously wrong.

His GP recognised the symptoms and immediately sent him to a neurologist at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee for tests.

One month later, in January 2015, David was told he had the onset of motor neurone disease (MND).

He says his focus is now firmly on his family and keeping life normal for his daughter.

"I already knew what MND was and what the prognosis would be," David says.

"It is nothing less than a death sentence. My wife and I were both in complete shock and it felt somehow unreal.

"Dread, fear, disbelief. You think, 'this can't really be happening, it's too messed up'.

"Gradually you have to accept that it is real and start putting the pieces back together."

As the doctor talked him through the diagnosis for the progressive terminal illness, which stops signals from the brain reaching the muscles, David felt complete despair having watched his great-aunt go through a similar fate.

The father of one had a busy job as a music distributor working with independent music labels, which he was very passionate about.

His work had taken him all around the world but his heart was always in his home town of Crieff in Perthshire.

Family holidays were a highlight in the calendar, with a recent trip to Cuba with his wife Jacqueline and their daughter among one of latest family adventures.

MND can cause someone to lose the ability to walk, eat, speak and breathe unaided, with more than 450 people in Scotland living with the disease and an average of 160 new cases diagnosed each year.

For David, the unpredictability of the illness has been a difficult thing to try to adapt to, saying it feels like a process of "almost constant deterioration".

He quickly became unable to type so had to begin using speech recognition on his computer. But as time has gone on his voice has deteriorated, making speech recognition impossible.

David is now unable to walk, speak clearly or drink liquids and every aspect of his life has changed, except from his family.

"You have to adapt constantly as your body deteriorates," he says.

"Then the new ways of doing things also fail. Things you took for granted fall away in droves."

He adds: "You also have to consider death in very real terms, which for me means losing my wonderful family, and them losing me.

"As a close father and pal to a beautiful seven-year-old daughter, it's hard to take. This is what makes me cry.

"My family also have to plan for a future without me. But more than anything we're trying to squeeze out every ounce of joy from life."

While David has had to step away from his main job as it became impossible to travel, he says he still enjoys writing.

"Stopping work has been to lose a large part of what made me, me," he says.

"I was passionate about my job and had built lots of great friendships through it.

"It's frustrating to see abilities you used to take for granted gradually getting snipped away, no matter how sharp my mind is.

"It is a very hard process to go through. You know that those abilities will never return so in a way you are grieving for your previous able-bodied life."

Continuing to adapt to new challenges, David says he has taken comfort in the support from charity MND Scotland and the many health professionals and carers that are now a part of his life.

He says he has not felt alone during this difficult time as a result.

MND Scotland is currently funding three research projects in Scotland, with chief executive Craig Stockton hoping to increase public awareness and understanding as they launch annual awareness week between June 20 and June 26.

It follows news earlier this month that MND campaigner Gordon Aikman had raised more than £500,000 for research into a cure for the condition.

For now, David's focus is firmly on his family.

"This illness also has an upside, it focuses you on what's important: family and friends. I've come to value them more the ever. I plan on sticking around for as long as possible.

"We have been trying to spend as much time together as possible, I am completely focused on trying to make the most of every moment.

"At times, it feels easy to get overwhelmed with grief. Then I have to bring myself back to the moment and make the most of the here and now.

"It's been really important to try and have as normal a life as possible for my little girl."