“I’VE not had a bad day. Not one. I’ve never once thought ‘Why me?’”

It is two years since former Bury midfielder Lenny Johnrose first spoke of his motor neurone disease diagnosis, but he maintains a remarkable and admirable outlook.

“It is what it is. It’s life and it’s how you deal with things,” he says of living with MND, a disease which prevents messages from the brain and nerves from reaching muscles.

“I can’t change that. I’m always going to have it. But I’m not going to stop living.

“I’ve always lived life as though you’ve only got one go at it, and enjoyed life. That hasn’t changed for me,” he said.

"I'm genuinely quite happy with my life. I've had a really, really good life.

"If it ends tomorrow, next week, next year, so be it.

"I'm genuinely not fazed by it at all."

The 50-year-old gets his stoicism, he says, from him mum - one of many relationships he documents in his new book, Finding A Way - the title of which sums up his life, his upbringing, his football career, life after football and living with MND, which is a recurring theme throughout.

Bury Times:

Of writing the book, speaking to Radio Lancashire he said: "People said 'write a book' to me and I thought 'I've not got got anything interesting to say'.

"I put it off for three or four years but then I had all this time on my hands. It was good. It was a bit like therapy.

"I just ramble, and that's what I did.

"I thought I will take it from right at the beginning and work my way through.

"I wanted that MND theme running throughout. In there there's a bit of a diary as well. I put down how I felt on that particular day so people get an insight into what it's like really."

Johnrose, who made over 230 appearances for Bury over two spells, also tackles his experiences of racism. And while he acknowledges that things have improved in certain areas of society he insists: "There is still a long way to go."

Awareness in all aspects of life, he feels, is important, which is why he chose to go into his former clubs to talk about MND.

He refuses to let his condition hold him back, but he admits he has embraced lockdown life and spending precious time with his family.

"We actually realised that we quite like each other," he joked.

"Spending time with the kids has been great."

As for the book, it has barely hit the shelves and he is already thinking about the next.

"In my head I think I will start a second one," he said. I might not finish it. If I don't, I don't, it's not going to stop me starting it though."

As far as Johnrose is concerned, none of us know what is around the corner.

"You might get run over by a bus tomorrow. You never know when you are going to go. We don't."