Welcome to Living Well with MS Coffee Break #28, where we are pleased to welcome Claes Nermark as our guest!  

Our Coffee Break series is your chance to get to know members of our diverse OMS community. In each episode, you’ll join Geoff Allix for an intimate chat with a different member of our global community. Our guests will share their personal stories and talk about their challenges and victories, large and small. We hope you find common cause and a source of inspiration from the stories of these very special people. 

As always, your comments and suggestions are always welcome by emailing podcast@overcomingms.org. We hope you enjoy this episode’s conversation with Claes, coming to you straight from Sweden. 

Click here for a full transcript of this episode.

Claes’s Bio:

Claes lives in Sweden. He is happily married to Malin, and they have three grown children. At university, Claes trained to become a physical education and biology teacher. In addition to teaching, he has added the following skills to his CV: software trainer, fitness and yoga instructor, event manager, sports club administrator, operations manager, vice principal, and employee wellness manager. 

In 2002, during a stressful period as an event manager, Claes was diagnosed with optic neuritis. A scar in the brain where the optic nerve branches to each eye was found, and he was diagnosed with a stroke as the disruption of sight was very similar in both eyes. But was it really a stroke? 

In 2010, it was time for a career change from sports club administrator to operating manager at a start-up in holistic health. During the stressful preparations for his new role, he noticed obvious double-vision when driving home one day. The MRI scan showed multiple lesions in the brain, and Claes was diagnosed with MS. 

Malin, Claes’s wife, learned about OMS on the internet and this was the first step on an amazing journey to health and recovery. Apart from reading the book and adopting the program, Claes is forever grateful that he got the opportunity to attend the first OMS retreat in the northern hemisphere at Launde Abbey in 2013. The amazing people Claes and Malin met at Launde Abbey have all become their OMS family. 

Without any DMDs, Claes has now been relapse free for eight years (and counting). Today he runs his own business, Do Your Thing, as a health creator doing public speaking, teaching, coaching, fitness classes, and personal training.  

In 2021, Claes became the first OMS Circle Ambassador in Sweden which you can join here.

Three Important Lessons Claes Learned in 2021: 

  • Sweden had a uniquely open Covid strategy. 

  • One supportive call with someone newly diagnosed with MS can make all the difference. 

  • You can use avocado to replace butter/margarine in many recipes for baked goods. 

Three Interesting Facts About Claes: 

  • Claes loves travelling and meeting new people and learning about new cultures. He lived for a year in Santa Barbara, California as well as a year in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has circled the globe both east- and west-bound. 

  • Since being diagnosed with MS, Claes has completed in an Olympic triathlon (1500m open water swimming, 40km cycling, and 10km running), a 30km cross-country run and a 300km biking event. 

  • Claes interprets MS as Mental Strength (during gym sessions it occasionally turns into Maximal Strength). 

Claes’s Links: 

Coming up on our next episode: 

On the next episode of Living Well with MS, premiering February 23, 2022, meet Chris Cerillo, an OMSer from the United States who discusses living life to the fullest with MS, including the peaks and the valleys. You won’t want to miss this intimate first person POV on life with MS. 

Don’t miss out: 

Subscribe to this podcast and never miss an episode. You can catch any episode of Living Well with MS here or on your favorite podcast listening app. Don’t be shy – if you like the program, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you tune into the show. And feel free to share your comments and suggestions by emailing podcast@overcomingms.org. 

 

S4E47b transcript_Claes Nermark.pdf