Several months after Celine Dion revealed she was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease, her older sister, Claudette Dion, has shared an update on the singer’s ongoing health battle.
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In December 2022, Dion revealed that she was diagnosed with Moersch-Woltman syndrome or stiff-person syndrome (SPS), an incurable neurological disease that can cause debilitating muscle spasms.
“She’s doing everything to recover,” said Claudette Dion, 74, in a recent interview. “She’s a strong woman.”
The condition affects the central nervous system, particularly the brain and spinal cord, according to the Stiff Person Syndrome Foundation. “Imagine a full-body Charley horse that stops you in your tracks,” reads a description on the foundation website. “Stiff person syndrome is a neurological disease with autoimmune features,” continues the description. “Symptoms include muscle spasms, hyper-rigidity, debilitating pain, and chronic anxiety. Muscle spasms can be so violent they can dislocate joints and even break bones.”
“It’s an illness we know so little about,” added Claudette. “There are spasms. They’re impossible to control. There’s little we can do to support her, to alleviate her pain.”
Dion’s sister Claudette previously said that despite working with “top researchers in the field,” there has been little improvement in her health and it is difficult to find the proper treatment for her SPS. Another sister of Dion’s, Linda, has also moved into the singer’s Las Vegas home as her caretaker.
“We can’t find any medicine that works, but having hope is important,” said Claudette. “I honestly think that she mostly needs to rest. She always goes above and beyond, she always tries to be the best and top of her game. At one point, your heart and your body are trying to tell you something. It’s important to listen to it.”
Dion, who has three sons, René-Charles, 22, and 11-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy with her late husband René Angélil, first revealed her SPS diagnosis in a video on Instagram on Thursday (December 8).
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The 55-year-old singer revealed her condition, several months after canceling the remainder of her North American Courage World Tour earlier in 2022. “I’ve been dealing with problems with my health for a long time,” said Dion in a video message on her social media pages. “And it’s been really difficult for me to face these challenges and to talk about everything that I’ve been going through.”
She continued, “Recently, I’ve been diagnosed with a very rare neurological condition called Stiff Person Syndrome, which affects something like one in a million people. While we’re still learning about this rare condition, we now know that this is what has been causing all of the spasms that I’ve been having. Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I’m used to.”
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