Who was Martin Bashirs brother Tommy and what is Duchenne muscular dystrophy?

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X FACTOR’s Martin Bashir has revealed his dead brother’s tragic fate to the judges on tonight’s show.

But who was his brother Tommy and what condition did he suffer from? Here’s what we know.

The award winning broadcaster, 56, lost his young sibling Tommy at 29 after a lifelong struggle against muscle disease

Who was Martin Bashir’s brother Tommy?

The award winning broadcaster, 56, lost his young sibling Tommy at 29 after a lifelong struggle against muscle disease.

Speaking on Simon Cowell’s talent show, to air tomorrow night, he revealed that Tommy’s voice comes to him when he is faced with obstacles and daunting opportunities in life.

Speaking about his reasons for taking part, he tells the music boss: Every time I have faced a challenge I have heard him whispering saying, What excuse do you have? You have no excuse.

You have never sung but someone has come to you and said, Give it a shot. And that is my motivation.

Martin reveals to Simon and judges Nicole Scherzinger and Louis Walsh that Tommy was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

And the interviewer becomes emotional on stage as he recalls: When you grow up with a child and you fight over toys at four and he never fights back and then, by the time he is 13 he cant feed himself, you feel that you have no excuse for turning down opportunities.

Martin says he cared for his sick brother with his mum and dad and Tommy passed away in 1991.

Martin says he cared for his sick brother with his mum and dad and Tommy passed away in 1991

What is Duchenne muscular dystrophy?

Muscular dystrophy is the generic term for a genetic condition that sees the muscles in the body weaken and eventually waste away.

It is caused by a mutation in genes that the sufferer inherits from their parents and often runs in families.

There are many types of the disease and some don’t cause disability or affect life expectancy.

However, some variations including Duchenne and limb-girdle can be fatal.

What are the symptoms of muscular dystrophy?

As there are many different types of muscular dystrophy, the symptoms can vary depending on the variation.

However, one symptom all sufferers have is a muscle weakness, but again the severity of this is different from person to person.

For example, with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, it is usually diagnosed in children and symptoms include difficulty walking, running, or jumping, late speech development and learning difficulties.

Whereas oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy, which is more common in older people, has symptoms such as droopy eyelids, difficulty swallowing and limb weakness.

A graphic showing how the muscles of muscular dystrophy sufferers begins to shrink

What is the lifespan of somebody suffering muscular dystrophy?

Not all types of muscular dystrophy are life limiting or cause severe disability.

Variants such as facioscapulohumeral MD and oculopharyngeal MD do not usually affect life expectancy.

Emery-Dreifuss MD, a type of muscular dystrophy that develops in childhood usually sees sufferers live until middle age.

But myotonic is seriously life-threating and Duchenne sufferers only live into their 20s or 30s.