Peter Sefton-Williams left 'mentally traumatised' by doctor after misdiagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease: 'I could have died on the basis of an error'

After being told by the doctors that he had the terminal condition MND, Sefton-Williams was then advised to "not make any plans past six month's time".

Opting instead to take his diagnosis into this own hands, Sefton-Williams told GB News of how he instead signed himself up to Dignitas, and was arranging end of life care with doctors.

Recalling the horrific ordeal, Sefton-Williams told the People's Channel: "I thought it might be Parkinson's, but I thought, please don't let it be Motor Neurone Disease, and it was. And he said, although I'm going to write that it's suspected, I have to tell you, there is no doubt whatsoever that you have Motor Neurone Disease and that you typically can live between one and a half to four or five years.

"He said you should make no plans beyond six months. I was so panicked."

Opening up on his decision to contact Dignitas, Sefton-Williams said he was given a "barrage of specialists" to deal with his MND and end of life care.

He explained: "The day after the diagnosis, I contacted Dignitas, because they said it would take six months to do the paperwork. So I thought, I have to do this in a hurry.

"I had breathing specialists, swallowing specialists, a whole barrage of specialists assigned to me, and I also saw a palliative care specialist to talk about my end of life care."

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However, after noticing his symptoms were getting better instead of worse, Sefton-Williams sought a third opinion, and was told he in fact had a different, non-terminal condition.

Sefton-Williams said: "As spring turned into summer, I wasn't getting any worse. And oddly enough, I was even getting slightly better. So they sent me for some more nerve conductivity tests. And the specialist then said, no, no, no, this is not Motor Neuron Disease, this is Multifocal Motor Neuropathy.

"It's very rare, it mimics the early stages of Motor Neurone Disease. But it's a mild disease, nobody dies of it, and it's largely curable."

When asked by host Bev Turner how his misdiagnosis has impacted him emotionally, Sefton-Williams admitted that he is still "not over the emotional trauma" of the ordeal.

He concluded: "I'm hoping in a few months to start treatment. You would think I would be elated - in fact, I liken it to standing in front of a firing squad for nine months, and then somebody says, 'by the way, we're not going to shoot you'. You wouldn't jump around with joy, and I didn't.

"I'm still I'm trying to mentally get over the trauma of it, if I'm frank."

When questioned on whether the doctor who misdiagnosed him ever issued an apology, he revealed: "I do know that the initial doctor knows because when I did a previous interview, I got an email from him personally to say 'I hear the diagnosis has changed'.

"There was no apology really."