THE devastated husband of motor neurone disease sufferer Janine Harris has praised carers and paramedics after they battled in vain for 45 minutes to save her life.

Steve Harris said carers Sally Godfrey, Jo Goldup and Donna Nevis performed CPR on his 49-year-old wife after she stopped breathing - possibly after suffering a heart attack - until ambulance crews arrived and took over.

“There was a monumental effort to get her heart going and after 45 minutes they got her to hospital,” he said.

York Press:

“I was saying: ‘Don’t let her die.’ She died when the doctors pulled the plug with our blessing. This enabled us to say goodbye to her and her youngest daughter Megan to hold her hand as she passed away.

“I want to say thanks to A& E and the ambulance crews who never gave up, and for the compassion shown to our family.We moan about our NHS at A & E, but I think we have the best in the world. We must not let it go under.”

Steve, a former kitman for York Wasps and York City Knights, who runs Anytime Travel York, said MND had destroyed a previously fit and healthy woman over the past three years, with a terrible impact on the family.

He said the rare neurological condition caused the degeneration of the motor system - the cells and nerves in the brain and spinal cord which controlled the body’s muscles.

It left Janine, a mother-of-five, having to sleep in a specially adapted bed, with her breathing assisted and a hoist needed to get her out and into a wheelchair. “”It’s such an horrendous illness,” he said.

He said she was given only 48 hours to live last September after she developed pneumonia but recovered to survive for another six months, during which time he took her on a short cruise.

He told how Janine always responded to her illness with a great sense of humour and courage. “She always said there’s someone worse off than me,” he said. “When people asked how she was, she’d say: “I’m still dying.”

Steve said there was a family tradition on important days such as birthdays to pile into one of his firm’s minibuses and travel up to Scarborough, and about 100 family and friends kept up the tradition in her memory on Mothering Sunday, buying fish and chips before flying lanterns.

He said he hoped to set up a charity in Janine’s name to give out grants to couples struggling with terminal illnesses to help pay for essential items.

But the collection at her funeral, the date for which has not yet been set, would be for St Leonard’s Hospice, which gave Janine fantastic respite care.