AS Hagley grandfather Paul Whyley watched the award-winning film "The Theory of Everything" - about scientist Stephen Hawking and his battle with motor neurone disease - he mentally clicked off the symptoms of the illness and realised he had all of them.

He said nothing to Jayne, his devoted wife of 40 years - but two weeks later they had the devastating diagnosis that he too was suffering from motor neurone disease.

And, unlike the world-famous physicist who has defied all the odds to live with it for 50 years, Mr Whyley, aged 62, knows his days are numbered due to the rare condition that progressively damages parts of the nervous system and leads to muscle weakness.

Also - in contrast to Mr Hawking, with his hi-tech voice machine, electric wheelchair and entourage of carers - Mr Whyley is having to struggle on, helped by his wife, in a normal house with no special adaptations to ease the burden.

Now his sister-in-law Glynis Palmer from Pedmore has launched a fundraising drive to bring in cash towards buying a stair lift, motorised wheelchair, hoist and any other devices that might make the rest of his life easier for him and his 59-year-old wife.

"It's a vile, evil disease," said Mrs Whyley, who met and fell in love with her husband when they both worked at the County Express, forerunner of the Stourbridge News - she as receptionist and he as a circulation representative - in the early 1970s.

They recently celebrated their ruby wedding anniversary with a trip to the Forest of Dean with their two daughters, Lauren Barnett and Heather Roberts, and four grandchildren.

"We'd got a normal life - everything was fine and we were both looking forward to retirement," added Mrs Whyley, who in October took voluntary redundancy from her job as practice administrator at Hagley doctors' surgery.

"But this has hit us so suddenly and now I am looking after Paul 24-7 and we don't even have a downstairs bathroom."

Mr Whyley, whose job was supplying and installing blinds, says he had been "fit as a fiddle" but began suffering symptoms, including a pain in his right shoulder and breathing difficulties, with an inability to cough or sneeze, in November.

He went to see his doctor, who was unable to tell him what was wrong.

Eventually, he was referred to a neurologist but, because of a lengthy waiting list, went to see a specialist at West Midlands Private Hospital in Halesowen.

On March 18, he was given a nerve test at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, when he was told that he had motor neurone disease, but he then had to wait another six weeks before the results were confirmed by a neurologist.

Mr Whyley, who had read Stephen Hawking's book A Brief History of Time, years ago, said: "We went to see The Theory of Everything just two weeks before my diagnosis.

"They listed the symptoms and I thought 'I've got all of them' but I said nothing. It was a good film."

Mr Whyley is now taking medication to slow the progression of the disease but can no longer walk unaided and uses a ventilator at home throughout the night and sometimes during the day.

"They normally say people die within two to five years but the doctors think Paul has had it for some time," said Mrs Whyley.

"It's frightening and has come as such a shock to us."

They have started the process of being assessed for grants from the Motor Neurone Disease Association, through Mr Whyley's occupational therapist, but in the meantime they are struggling to cope.

A fundraising summer fete to help raise cash will be held at Stourbridge's Greenfield Primary School, on July 11 - starting at 2pm.

Mrs Palmer, aged 63, of Mountain Ash Drive, has organised the event along with a raffle - having collected an array of prizes including meals out, a luxury hamper and hair salon treatments.

She said: "I was totally shocked - devastated - when Paul was diagnosed. Paul and Jayne are still as in love as when they met and this is tragic.

"We haven't set a fundraising target but just want to raise as much as we can to help make their lives easier."

The couple's niece, Sarah Remmers, who works at Greenfield, is also arranging a sponsored silence with her pupils to raise funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Anyone wishing to make a donation to help Paul can do so online at https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/Paul-Whyley