There are some people who don’t think MS is real Young mum diagnosed with life-changing illness at just 23
six-month-old. At that time, her dad worked away from home. So, it was just me and Connie.”
Mairi was prescribed Copaxone – single injections to her stomach or limbs, which left her skin sore, itchy and inflamed.
“Dealing with the pain in the site of the injections made it too difficult to lift my daughter,” said Mairi, who subscribes to the school of thought that she’d been living with MS without her knowledge – and it was childbirth trauma that triggered her symptoms.
“She’d be crying, but I’d be too sore to lift her up and comfort her.”
Mairi’s parents-in-law, Lynn and David Valentine, and her sister-in-law, Stephanie, live next door and were always on hand to help.
So, too, were her own supportive parents Annmarie and William Flynn, sisters Kerrie and Katie, and brothers Jamie and Tony.
The young mum returned to work part-time at the dental practice, but found juggling motherhood, employment and her MS symptoms overwhelming and she had to resign.
In 2014, Mairi agreed to take part in a clinical trial for an oral medication for MS. Her bloods were tested as part of that trial – and that’s when she discovered she was three months pregnant with her second child.
It was a difficult pregnancy, during which Mairi was violently sick. Due to her MS and her traumatic experience while giving birth to Connie, Penny was delivered by C-section.
Soon after Penny’s arrival, Mairi had a seizure and, as a result, had to surrender her driving licence for a year.
“When you have two wee ones and you can’t really walk at the best of times, losing my licence added another layer of difficulty,” said Mairi, whose mother-in-law would take over the girls’ bathtimes when their mum couldn’t muster the energy.
“I couldn’t really walk after the seizure. I couldn’t speak properly. My voice was constantly shaky, and I couldn’t use my arms very well.”
When Penny was just three years old, Mairi’s MS symptoms struck with a vengeance that left her unable to walk, talk or move her legs.
The month-long episode shocked both Mairi and the girls’ dad, Grant, who was extremely supportive and instantly “stepped up.”
Saying that having a mum with MS is all that her daughters have known, Mairi – who sometimes uses a walking stick – continued: “They know I cannot get through a whole day being awake. I need to sleep for usually two hours. You still wake up tired, but you can manage it better, knowing that you’ve had some rest during the day.
“You are tired all the time and, when I’m overly tired, I get quite grumpy and emotional. I have woken up in excruciating pain,