Pauline shared how, after receiving a shocking and devastating MS diagnosis, the charity provided her with hope. She is now a trustee.
I would like to take you back to the 14th of June 2018. I woke up that morning and life seemed good. Until a stranger, who without looking at me but instead staring at his computer screen, said: “I can confirm this is multiple sclerosis.” What was this man talking about? I was 46 years old. I was the vision of health. I had torn a rotator cuff, which lead to an MRI which would lead to a spinal surgeon thinking I might have a spinal issue. It wasn’t, it was MS.
I don’t think I’ve overcome the shock of the delivery of that diagnosis. I left, in a daze. Before I left I asked the neurologist, “Any advice?” It was a throwaway comment by me, I didn’t know what to say or how to cope with what I had heard. He looked at me and he said, “Everything you have ever wanted to do, do it now.” With those words, this man wiped out my life, all of it ahead. The bits of the world that I’d saved to travel to when I retired – gone. Every single plan I had – gone. I’m a lawyer and so one of the first things I did was look up what the law says about multiple sclerosis. It defines MS as a disability along with two other conditions, AIDS and cancer.
Nine months later, I went on the Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis residential retreat and it changed my life. It changed my perspective of what this disease meant, in real terms, and emotionally. The support, the community there that week. That support has continued. When I left, I had all these new friends and I cannot begin to express just how powerful the hope that the charity gives is, to someone who feels that their future is wholly doomed. I had been told there was nothing to be done – MS is incurable. Go away and wait for your wheelchair because that is the expectation. But after the Overcoming MS retreat, I realised, you can manage this condition, you can do things to help yourself.
18 months later, I had no new lesions. I had no sign of active MS. I was fortunate, not everyone is in that position. Five and a half years later, I still have no new lesions. I have no signs of active disease, no obvious signs of deterioration. It’s exactly what I hoped for when I found the charity and of course, I am ecstatic about that, but it does not change the fact that as someone who has been diagnosed with such a crushing condition, there is always fear, an underlying fear and that’s where the charity comes in. It gives me hope.
The support Overcoming MS provides is indescribable and, ever since the retreat, I have been wholly committed to doing anything I possibly can to ensure that everyone in my position that day knows and understands that there is help. There is something you can do for yourself. There is a charity and a community of people that are there with advice that can help you. So now I am playing my part as a trustee of Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis to help reach more people like me.
Pauline’s story was shared in our 2023 Impact Report. You can read other stories and more about the impact of the charity in our 2023 Impact Report.