Guy Fortieth was just 16 when he was called into a stuffy doctor's office and told he had Multiple Sclerosis.

The teenager did not realise just how much the disease would affect him for the next eight years of his life.

Forced to give up his love of sports after realising that he could not stand upright for more than a few seconds, his vision also worsened as years went on.

"I guess it could be worse," he thought at the time. "I could have a brain tumour."

Despite his constant fight with Multiple Sclerosis, the 23-year-old has vowed not to let it stop him from achieving his dreams in music.

"I'll always be a musician," he says. "It's the one thing they can't take away from me."

He has appeared in gigs across Oban raising funds for stem cell therapy, and is currently producing an album to support others suffering from the illness.

In the years leading up to his diagnosis, Guy had known that something wasn't quite right.

He found himself veering to the side whenever he walked, and struggled to stand without holding onto something for support.

"Nobody believed me when I said I hadn't been drinking," he laughs.

His eyesight was the next to fail, and soon he decided to visit an optician after he began having trouble seeing the whiteboard in class.

His optician quickly found something she assumed was a brain tumour, but when Guy went to hospital for further scans, they found something quite different.

They told Guy he had Multiple Sclerosis, where damage to the nerves affects the brain and spinal cord and can cause serious disability.

The autoimmune condition affects more than 100,000 people in the UK, and at the moment is incurable.

At first, Guy had no idea what the diagnosis meant.

He hoped it wouldn't interfere with his love of cross country running, basketball and skating, but he soon found that he could not stand upright for more than a few seconds and was forced to give up his favourite sports.

He realised that the disease not only excluded him from PE lessons, but also made him a prime target for school bullies.

"I got picked on quite a lot at school because I had MS," he says. "I got laughed at because I couldn't walk in a straight line."

But his time at school soon drew to a close, and Guy found himself struggling to find a job with his deteriorating eyesight.

And so he did as he had always done before - he picked up his guitar, strummed a few tunes, and suddenly knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

His love of music began when he was just six years old, playing rickety nursery rhymes on his new violin before picking up a guitar at the age of nine.

"Basically from then I just played anything I could get my hands on," he says.

He began to collect guitars and studio equipment when he left school, and studied studio engineering at a local college to further his dreams.

"Everyday is always different," he says. "Sometimes I'll wake up absolutely fine, and other days I just can't get up out of bed.

"But no matter how I feel, I always pick up my guitar."

"My favourite genre to play would be blues," he says. "You have a lot of space to express your own emotion into the song.

"I really look up to people like BB King and Gregory Alan Isakov - they inspired me to try."

His Facebook page has gained a following of over 6000 people, and he posts links to upcoming events and the occasional cover.

He also offers his home-made studio to other budding musicians, and offers to help record their music.

Now Guy is using his talents to raise money for some very important stem cell therapy.

"I haven't had a relapse for eight years," he says. "It's epic, but I know it's still there.

"I'm raising money to help fund stem cell research, and hopefully get myself some treatment."

Stem cells have a unique ability that helps produce other types of cells that can help treat the nerve damage caused by Multiple Sclerosis.

MS is believed to be an autoimmune condition, meaning that the body's immune system mistakenly attacks and damages the 'myelin sheath' protecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

So far, young Guy has raised almost £2000 towards his own therapy, with profits from his gigs and music sales contributing to his cause.

"I know it will really really change my life and I can't wait for that day."

To follow Guy's music, visit his Facebook page. To contribute to his ongoing fundraising, click here.