MS sufferer fighting for treatment

Kane Roper has a vivid memory of the day his body began to fail him.

He was in Hawke’s Bay, on leave from his job as a meat inspector, and it was almost Christmas, 2005.

‘‘I was in the car, driving and my brother was following behind me and I saw two cars in the rear vision mirror. It looked like he was going to hit me,’’ Roper said.

He recalls nervously talking to his parents about seeing double.

Doctors suspected multiple sclerosis (MS), which caused him to ‘‘freak out’’ and take off overseas. In Britain he was officially diagnosed.

Two years later he moved to Japan. He came home when he started walking with a cane.

MS slowly attacks the central nervous system,

‘‘Your life is measured by how important and loved you can make someone else feel.’’