ALS activist Bjorn Formosa was rushed to hospital on Sunday evening after enduring severe pain due to prostate stones.

Friends of the activist, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2015, wrote on his Facebook page that he was urgently admitted to Mater Dei Hospital, and that because of his condition he could not be operated on.

In an updated on Monday morning, they said that Formosa was in stable condition but had endured a difficult and painful night “which wasn’t easy for anyone.”

It is expected that he will be kept at Mater Dei Hospital for observation for the coming week.

Formosa’s friends thanked the staff at Mater Dei for their “impeccable service” and also thanked all those who sent messages of courage and hope to the activist, which they said he is reading one by one with the help of carers.

Formosa was diagnosed with the terminal ALS disease in 2015, and has since become a champion of awareness about it.

ALS is a motor neuron disease which takes away a person’s ability to walk, eat, and breathe.  The disease gradually destroys the long nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord which reach other muscles and tell them what to do.

Formosa set up the ALS Malta Foundation and has since opened Malta’s first home – Dar Bjorn – for people with ALS, multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases.

Work is in full swing for the completion of a second similar care home in Zebbug, with a fundraising marathon to this end set to take place on 25 September.