She revealed her diagnosis in December, which forced her to pull the plug on her ‘Courage World Tour’, and her older sibling Claudette Dion, 74, has now said she is devastated there seems little she and the singer’s family can do to help her ‘strong’ sister or ‘alleviate her pain’.

Claudette told HELLO! Canada: ‘She’s doing everything to recover. She’s a strong woman.

‘It’s an illness we know so little about. There are spasms – they’re impossible to control.

‘You know who people often jump up in the night because of a cramp in the leg or the calf? It’s a bit like that, but in all muscles.

‘There’s little we can do to support her, to alleviate her pain.’

She added mum-of-three Celine’s family is “crossing our fingers that researchers will find a remedy for this awful illness’.

Stiff person syndrome is a rare, progressive neurological disorder that can cause stiff muscles in the torso, arms and legs – and affects about one in a million people.

Celine’s other sister Linda and her husband have moved into the singer’s home in Las Vegas to care for her, and Claudette added: “It’s comforting for us all (to have them near Celine.)”

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