Graduate Amy won’t let MS battle stand in her way
GRADUATE DETERMINED TO GET ON WITH LIFE DESPITE DIAGNOSIS IN HER 20s
A GRADUATE has told how she is getting on with life after being being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her early 20s.
Amy Thompson, 23, from Worsley, Salford, started feeling unwell during an internship in France while doing a fashion marketing degree.
She said: “I was living in Paris at the time and I went on a weekend away.
“My leg had started to feel really heavy, but as I couldn’t explain it I just ignored it for a few days. When I arrived back in Paris, my usual 20-minute walk to work took so much longer because of my leg.
“I was almost dragging it behind me. I had no balance, no coordination, I couldn’t walk in a straight line... I couldn’t walk five minutes without having to sit down. Before that I was really fit and healthy and I couldn’t understand what was happening to me. I was really scared.”
Amy saw a doctor, who thought it could be a trapped nerve. She was sent for a blood test and an x-ray and was told ‘it wouldn’t be MS’ – an unpredictable condition which affects the central nervous system.
But Amy, who works as a recruitment manager in Manchester, was diagnosed with MS by a consultant straight away.
One in five people diagnosed with MS in the UK is now under the age of 30.
Amy said: “I’d been Googling a lot and while the first result that always came up for my symptoms was MS, the second was a brain tumour, so actually out of the two I was OK with it being MS.
“And because I’d already dealt with the fact it could be that, by the time I was diagnosed I’d already grieved in a way. But I didn’t really know anything about the condition so I was really scared. The only thing I’d really heard or seen about MS was people who were in wheelchairs.”
Amy’s main symptom is fatigue, which she likens to jet lag.
She said: “It’s not great. I’ve tried a lot of different things to help and nothing seems to work. Every day I wake up and I’m fatigued. The way I’d explain it is like jet lag.... It’s like that same level of extreme tiredness, but no matter how much sleep you get it doesn’t help. I could literally sleep for 15 hours and still feel the same.”
Amy’s condition has also fuelled anxiety – which hasn’t been helped by the pandemic. She said: “MS has affected me mentally. Every time I experience some sort of symptom I panic and think ‘oh God, I’m going to have another relapse’. It’s the uncertainty and the fear that another relapse could come at any time, and I won’t be able to walk again.”
Exercise has helped Amy stay positive, so she endured another setback when she suffered an injury which stopped her getting outdoors.
She said: “Running had been like my therapy, but my injury meant I couldn’t run throughout lockdown which was devastating.”
However, Amy credits having MS with helping her realise her potential.
She said: “At one point I didn’t even think I could finish uni, but I’ve done all those things and actually I think MS has made me an even more ambitious person. I want to do more than I did before, not less. The only difference I guess is I might have a few more setbacks. I’ve set up my blog which I hope to grow, I’ve set up my young person’s MS support group. I’d love to grow that to a point where it could become a charity.
“I want to make a positive change in some sort of way, whereas that was never really my goal before.”
The MS Society says the future is looking much brighter for people being diagnosed with the condition today.
Its Stop MS Appeal needs to raise £100 million to find treatments for everyone with the condition. And by 2025, they want to be in the final stages of testing a range of treatments to prevent disability progression.
Amy said: “There is amazing work happening and it’s very different today than it was even ten years ago. I think the future of people with MS is actually very hopeful.”