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'I've never let anything stop me before, so I'm sure not going to let this stop me'
A well-known dentist is having to learn how to talk again due to a condition so rare that even some medical professionals have not heard of it.
Nathan Wedge, 33, who has practices in Accrington and Burnley, and lives in Smithills, was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) in August 2024.
The father-of-six first began to notice something was wrong with his health seven months earlier, when in January 2024 he was taken to hospital with a suspected stroke due to symptoms of left-hand-side weakness.
(Image: Supplied)
In a recent turn for the worse, on June 4, 2025, he had 17 Seizures in one hour while celebrating his wife, Carly's, 40th birthday at Ribby Hall Village near Blackpool.
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He was taken to hospital and has since not been able to walk or talk while awaiting transfer from Blackpool Victoria Hospital to Royal Bolton Hospital for Neurorehabilitation.
Nathan after picking up a prize at the Bolton Men in Business Awards (Image: Supplied) FND is a signalling issue in the brain so tests like scans and bloods often appear normal, but the symptoms are real.
Nathan is still able to type, he told The Bolton News: "Life with FND can be greatly different from day to day, some days I can do everything I could before, but days like today it is so debilitating that I cannot even walk and currently am learning to talk again.
"FND is under-researched and often misunderstood even by healthcare professionals. "When I was blue-lit to hospital, our ambulance crew and an A&E nurse had never heard of the condition."
In February 2024, the former military man was misdiagnosed with hemiplegic migraines before starting with non-epileptic seizures in the May.
Non-epileptic seizures can mimic epileptic ones but are not caused by abnormal brain electrical activity.
The 33-year-old was having on/off symptoms of left-hand side weakness and several seizures a month, up until things got worse this month.
Married to his wife for 15 years, Nathan credits her and his six children, Kaidah, Keane, Kiah, Kiki, Knalah, and Knight, as well as one grandchild, for his determination to carry on.
He said: "It truly is due to the strength of the amazing people around me as to why I am able to continue everyday and fight to get better.
"They inspire me to be the best version of myself and I will be forever grateful for every single on of them."
Nathan with Kiki,16 (Image: Supplied) He added: "I am determined to get back fighting fit and complete as much fundraising as possible, and if a marathon is on the cards, I will do it because I've never let anything stop me in life before, so I'm sure not going to let FND stop me."
Nathan also won Outstanding Man of the Year 2025 at the recent Bolton Men in Business awards.
And in March, he came first in his category (rock and roll) with his 16-year-old daughter, Kiki, in Bolton's Strictly Learn To Dance event.
The dentist is determined to continue raising awareness of FND, with his TikTok following of more than 40,000, his main audience.
Carly said: "Nathan has had hundreds of messages of support. He is a determined person, so positive and upbeat and he is creating TikTok content to try and raise as much awareness as possible."
