Michael Campbell, a writer and actor from Belfast, died aged 35. He had motor neuron disease.

Campbell attended St Bride’s primary school and Rathmore grammar school in south Belfast. He studied physics and material science at the University of Cambridge. There he met writing partner Oisin Kearney from Warrenpoint in Co Down.

He used the stage name Michael Patrick. Campbell appeared in TV productions including Game of Thrones and Blue Lights. In 2017 he co-wrote and performed the one-man show My Left Nut at the Dublin Fringe Festival.

The show drew from his teenage experience with a hydrocele, a fluid-filled sac around a testicle. He linked that period to processing his father’s death from motor neuron disease in 1998 when Campbell was eight.

Campbell and Kearney adapted My Left Nut into a BBC series. In February 2023 Campbell received his own motor neuron disease diagnosis.

He co-adapted Richard III for a production at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre, performing in a wheelchair. The version featured the king receiving a terminal illness diagnosis. The show won the judges’ award at the Stage Awards in London.

Campbell wrote and performed My Right Foot at the Dublin Theatre Festival in October. The play covered his participation in an MND drug trial where he received a placebo.

He is survived by wife Naomi, mother Pauline, sisters Kate and Hannah, and brother Maurice.