Outspoken Catholic Priest Father Bob Maguire is bedridden in hospital after being struck down with CIDP, a rare neuromuscular disease.

Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP) is a form of nerve disease or peripheral neuropathy.

Some patients experience numbness which spreads and becomes more intense over days to weeks. Other patients develop weakness which also progresses.

In some cases the weakness can be so severe as to require hospitalisation. The key feature is that the neurologic symptoms progresses over days to weeks.

The priest's limbs have gradually weakened over the past 12 months, with his legs the first to be attacked.

The condition only affects around five hundred Australians every year.

For more information on how to donate go to:

Father Bob's Foundation