I was diagnosed in September 2014 and to begin with, I mean for the
first day or so, it was quite hard. I'd just done a placement, as I'm a physio student, so
just done the placement with a lot of stroke patients and MS patients and
obviously saw the more severe end of things and it scared me and I was
horrified that my life was gonna be kind of revolving around not being
independent. But I managed to use sport to give me a goal and give me something I
could control and it was kind of what kind allowed me to get over it
in a relatively short period of time. The diagnosis has definitely changed the
way that I think about things and kind of my outlook. I think now more about
living each day as it comes and taking every opportunity that's in front
of you. You don't know when things are going to change, you don't know when your
life's going to end, you don't know what's going to come as a challenge, so if
you've got an opportunity, I always think take it while it's there because
you might not ever have the opportunity to do it again. So my main symptoms I
get a lot of muscle spasms, so mainly through my right arm and then I get them
in my right leg and then when I'm quite fatigued I get them in both legs and
my other arm and that's the times when I spend time in my wheelchair and
but I also have altered sensation and a lot of pins and needles and burning, which
is fun! And then I also have some kind of problems in terms of like memory
and thinking, and just fatigue in general. A lot of my symptoms come when I'm
fatigued, and it's quite tricky as a student trying to stay not fatigued while also
trying to do two sports, it's a tricky balance. A lot of the symptoms are
quite invisible. A lot of people can't see fatigue, you can't see any of
the sensory issues that people have got, you can't see any of the cognitive
issues that people have got, and that's quite tricky especially for someone that
is struggling with it and in terms of being in work or for me in terms of my
sport and my classification, a lot of people don't understand how it works and
why I'm classified and what things are. But yeah it's quite tricky, so how we deal
with it? By raising the awareness so that people understand the symptoms that we
have and people know about it and they're able to then make adjustments to help
people, whether it's within school life, university life
it's in the workplace, whatever you're doing like adjustments need to be made
But people need to understand and kind of have the awareness of the illness and
how it can affect us. I think in terms of my sporting achievements, I'd probably
have to go with my Rio achievements. they were amazing but I think
maybe my cycling race. I don't think it was my
highlight, I mean the performance was great, but I think mainly
because that was the performance that kind of achieved the two sports and I'd
set out to go to Rio to become successful in two sports for the sake of
being able to show people across the world that
have got MS, other chronic conditions and invisible illnesses that we can still achieve
things, and if you put your mind to it and try to do it a different way, it
won't be the same way as what used to be, but you can still achieve things and MS
is not kind of the end of your life. It doesn't put a full-stop
after your name. You can still continue to do things and I think it was just a
very emotional performance and it meant so much to me because it wasn't just for
me, it was for everyone else and I felt like I'd achieved that and not let them
down. I was pretty scared of letting everyone down and I think that
was probably more pressure for myself but that would be my highlight.
My inspiration used to be an athlete called Allyson Felix, who's an American 400
meter runner. She runs so amazing and so graceful, and she's a lovely person
But then I became a Paralympic athlete and I'm surrounded by people that have
experienced horrible things. I have a friend who was in a tractor and
and her dad accidentally crushed her inside that so she's a spinal-cord
athlete and she became world champion and a world record holder this year. I have
another friend who jumped into swimming pool and broke her neck, she was fine to begin
with but then she moved and that made her a paraplegic, but she's on the
Paralympic squad. These people around me that are doing amazing things every
single day, these are the people that become my inspiration. Like when you're
with people that have got everything against them and kind of they've had so
many setbacks but they still go on to push through things, they're the people
that become your inspiration. I mean getting involved in sport it's different
for every person with MS and I started quite steadily because my balance was
really bad when I first began and so I did a lot of work on a stationary bike
I started lifting weights in the gym but it was kind of just squatting
with someone supporting me, just because as soon as you do movement outside
it's too much balance and coordination. But I say just take your time to get
into it and find something that works for you. Find something you enjoy, a lot
the time it's gonna be stuff that's not weight-bearing so getting in the
swimming pool, getting on a bike, but then those things lead on to being able to do
more things where you're weight-bearing and you've got coordination going on
So then you're getting involved in your running, your skipping, your Pilates classes
Yoga and pilates, plus lifting in the gym is what allowed me to be able to
get back into sport. It just helped me to gain back the coordination and the
balance and then I was able to go on and achieve great things, so yeah you just
gotta work really hard and then find what works for you
I do you see an MS nurse and they've helped me quite a lot in terms of the
medication I'm on and controlling my MS, and just knowing the symptoms
I suffered with a lot of UTIs and so they've helped me to be able to know the
symptoms of that. I used to panic thinking I was having a relapse every
time I had a UTI but understanding the symptoms and then finding ways to be
able to manage that they've helped me with that. My medication, I have an
injectable medication and I really struggle with kind of injections and
painfulness and lumps and all the stuff that come with an injection but they've
helped me to be able to manage that and signpost me to the right people
Whether it be a consultant if I need to look at
my medication, whether it be someone to look at kind of what's going on with my
UTI. So it's really important to have the specialist nurse because they kind
of bring everything together, they look at you as a person and they work with
the rest of the team to kind of help you to be as
good as you can be and I think it's important we really focus on the
individual and what the individual needs, and that's what the MS nurse helps to
allow to happen. I would just say don't panic, don't panic and don't go scrolling through the
internet to try and learn information. There's a lot of information
out there that is very negative, you type things into Google and you tend to see
the horrible side. I'd say try to find networks of people that have the condition rather
than seeing what you see on the internet, it's a lot better to speak to
individuals that have the condition and that are living with the condition and
approach people like the MS Trust that can signpost you to different kinds of
networks and people that can help support you. And speak to your MS nurse.
It is a very scary condition to have, especially when you're first diagnosed
but it's not as bad as what people think and especially in this day and age
with all the research that's been done. So I'd just say yeah don't panic,
find a good Network and communicate with people with this condition as well
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