Bradford Lord Mayor Councillor Harry Mason has revealed the "shattering blow" of being told he was suffering from an incurable and terminal illness.

Speaking for the first time about the final diagnosis that he has Motor Neurone Disease, the Labour Queensbury ward councillor said he was now living day to day and setting targets as his illness progressed.

Coun Mason - pictured as he made the announcement to the Telegraph & Argus - had been warned he may be suffering from the disease last July after he collapsed.

Now he is hoping a new drug, Rilazole, will help delay the nerve-wasting disease. He is one of the first Motor Neurone Disease patients to try the treatment.

The Lord Mayor said he was also hoping against hope that a cause and cure could be found for the disease, which has already put him in a wheelchair. The frail but determined first citizen said the disease had given him a new insight into the lack of facilities for disabled people and appealed for better access to allow those with disabilities into buildings.

He described how his wife, the Lady Mayoress, Councillor Christine Mason, had been forced to attend some functions alone.

He said: "I have tried very hard to be positive but it is difficult because I get very angry and frustrated. It is natural that one should do so."

Coun Mason, who has a ventilator at home to combat breathing difficulties, said the worst- affected parts of his body were now his hands.

He said: "This illness disables you physically, but I am still mentally alert.

"Because this drug is so new, it is not known to what extent it slows it down. But I believe that in the time I have taken it there has not been a deterioration. I have no doubt I would have been far worse without it. But it isn't a cure. They haven't found one and they do not know the cause.

"It was a shattering blow when I was diagnosed, although they had indicated it might be something like that. I think they wanted to know first that I was able to handle it.

"Because I know that I will become weaker and will become more consigned to a wheelchair, I set targets and go from day to day.

"I set one to get through Christmas and then to see the New Year in.

"I will be a unique Lord Mayor, the last in the 20th Century and the first in the 21st.

"My next target will be April, when I will be 74. The final one will be to see myself through to the end of my term of office, which will be in May." Coun Mason - who has served on the Council for five years - hopes to then carry on with his remaining two-year term as councillor.

"I have had great support from my wife and family and the civic staff," he said. "They have been superb. No one knows how hard Christine has worked.

"But, because I have become disabled this year and have to use a wheelchair, it has opened my eyes about the number of buildings, both public and Council, which are not accessible by wheelchair."

But he had a message of hope for the people of Bradford. "I wish everyone across the district prosperity and happiness in the Millennium," he said.

Coun Mason's charity appeal for Bradford's new £5.2 million Marie Curie Cancer Care Centre has reached £25,000.

He follows in the footsteps of his great uncle, Thomas Blythe, who was Lord Mayor in 1921-22.

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