The Incredibly Complex Life Of Stephen Hawking

An Illness He Would Never Recover From

Photo Credits: Romano Cagnoni/Getty Images

During his years at Oxford, Hawking began to notice some physical health issues such as occasional slurred speech and sometimes tripping and falling. However, he began to recognize a more serious problem during his first year at Cambridge in 1963. He continued to keep these issues to himself until his father began to take notice. His father then took him to a doctor where he spent two weeks undergoing a series of various tests.

Unfortunately, at the young age of 21, doctors diagnosed Hawking with the early stages of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He was also given an estimated two years to live which was absolutely devastating to Hawking and his family. Yet Hawking’s disease helped mold him into the scientist he eventually became.