Mum’s courageous story of life with debilitating illness

A mum with multiple sclerosis has given a frank and heart-rending account of life with the debilitating condition.

Louise O’Boyle, from Canterbury, was just 27 when she was diagnosed with MS.

Ten years on, she has told in detail of the impact the condition has had to raise awareness for MS Week.

Louise had been feeling numbness and pins and needles down her arms and legs and noticed she sometimes struggled with her balance.

After a series of neurological tests she was given the lifechanging news in 2002.

The 37-year-old, of Raymond Avenue, said: “I felt almost pleased. I had never heard of MS and I didn’t really know what it was, but I was just relieved that I didn’t have a brain tumour.”

Having been diagnosed, she and partner Mark were advised that if they wished to start a family they should do so soon. By May 2004 she was pregnant with baby Finn.

Finn was born in good health, but Louise relapsed two weeks after giving birth and suffered muscle weakness down the entire right side of her body.

She was unable to walk, raise her hand or even smile properly.

“I constantly needed to sleep and I couldn’t look after my baby boy or even carry him up and down the stairs,” she said. “I felt like the worst mummy in the world.

“That lasted for about six months before I could walk properly again and it was years before I stopped napping during the day. Finn dropped his daytime naps before I did.”

Since 2011 Louise has attended the Kent MS Therapy Centre in Merton Lane, Canterbury. The centre has provided support for people with multiple sclerosis in the area for the last 30 years.

With more than 1,800 people in the district suffering from the condition and 200 people attending each week, the centre is expanding operations to a new building due to open by the end of 2014.

The new centre will boast more therapy rooms, a gym, a large physio area, a quiet room, a hydrotherapy pool, yoga and pilates classes and art therapy.

“The Kent MS Therapy Centre has been amazing to me. It’s such a happy and positive place where everyone understands the variable nature of MS.

“The new building is going to be so beneficial. As a purpose built building it will be able to provide us with all the facilities we need.”

The effects of Louise’s condition vary. She is limited in how far and fast she can walk, she tires easily and she suffers occasional spasms in her arms and legs. Yet despite these setbacks, Louise remains optimistic.

“I may have MS, but it doesn’t have me!” she says.

Louise O’Boyle, who suffers from MS her son Finn