Former Lioness captain Steph Houghton is calling for more funding for research into motor neurone disease following her husband's, Stephen Darby, diagnosis
Sitting down with Steph Houghton, it’s hard not to be starstruck.
The former Lionesses captain earnt 121 caps for her country and played in three World Cups, inspiring girls and women around the world to play football.
But we aren’t here to talk about her glittering career.
Last year she retired from professional football to spend more time with her husband Stephen Darby, who is living with motor neurone disease (MND).
He too was a football star, playing for Liverpool, Bradford City and Bolton Wanderers and when they met it really was a football fairytale.
She immediately tells me it was "love at first sight" and the way she talks about Stephen it’s clear that he is her world.
Steph's husband, Stephen Darby, was a football star, playing for Liverpool, Bradford City and Bolton Wanderers. Credit: Steph Houghton
They married in 2018, but four months later came the devastating diagnosis.
"No one could ever prepare you for that moment, none of us had heard of what motor neurone disease was," she tells me.
"And I remember actually googling and I think the first line was like - life expectancy is from two to ten years."
Motor neurone disease is a degenerative condition that causes nerve damage and muscle weakness.
Stephen’s MND progressed slowly at first, but over the past 12 months his condition has rapidly deteriorated.
He can no longer walk unaided or feed himself, and speech has become struggle.
I ask Steph how she copes and despite her seemingly strong exterior, it’s clear that day to day life is more difficult than she ever could have imagined.
"It's hard and I'm not going to lie" Steph tells ITV News about the impact of her husband's diagnosis
"It's hard and I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I have the best days because I don't," she tells me.
"I think, like, how do you even describe the changes that we've had as a family, it's so hard to see your husband, who had so much promise in his football career, to see that being taken away from him.
"But also the simple tasks that we probably take for granted of being able to walk, being able to have food, being able to get up the stairs.
"I think that brings perspective massively to me."
There is no cure for motor neurone disease.
And while rugby legend Rob Burrow’s diagnosis raised its profile, Steph believes research is radically underfunded and that more money needs to be invested to give families hope for the future.
"We are so desperate for that cure": Steph says they are "desperate" for money to be put into research to give other families more "hope"
Tomorrow, footballers past and present will help with that fundraising by walking 178 miles in an event known as March of the Day.
Last year, they walked between Bradford City and Liverpool calling at 17 other football grounds.
And this year they’ll take in 26 football grounds with a walk that starts at Wembley Stadium and finishes Portman Road in East Anglia - the home of newly promoted Ipswich Town.
Money raised will go towards the Darby Rimmer foundation - a charity set up by Stephen Darby and close friend and British Forces Veteran Chris Rimmer who also has MND.
As for the future - Steph says she wants to be a wife, not just a carer, and that they mustn’t waste a single moment.
She talks of their date nights, Stephen’s love of horse racing and how they hope to have a family of their own one day.
And although she misses football, Steph tells me that since retiring it’s almost as if she’s left one club and joined another - a club of families affected by MND all fighting for the same thing.
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