Invergordon woman shares the impact of ignorant comments for MS Awareness Week
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LEONI WIDDOWS is doing her bit to educate the public during Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week (April 22 to 28) after being diagnosed with the condition at just 16. Here she speaks to Iona MacDonald and reflects on the impact ignorant comments can have and the importance of understanding disabilities are different for everyone…
I try to spread awareness as much as I can, because disabilities and illnesses can happen to any of us in the blink of an eye. If I had more knowledge at the time I was diagnosed, maybe it would have set me up to cope better with the life I have now.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is completely different for everyone, the ranges of severity are what I seem to struggle with the most mentally – the type of MS I have means no remission or breaks. The fast decline in my health and mobility happened at such a young age for MS, so they were lost on what to do.
I haven’t been able to walk since around the end of summer 2020, and after maxing out the options my doctors are pretty sure this is it.
One thing I was never prepared for, was the affect on relationships around you. When you’re disabled I think there’s an automatic feeling of being ‘less than’ – and truly I don’t believe a lot of people think about what they are saying, before it is said.
“If you don’t think about the pain you’re in, you won’t feel it.”
“If we don’t give you the option of choosing if people can come to your house, you won’t have a chance be anxious about the visit.”
There’s a few other comments like that, which play on my mind 24/7 – but I don’t think I can even share them as you would be pretty disgusted and disappointed anyone said them in the first place… I know I was.
When I say that illnesses and disabilities can affect anyone, I truly mean that! Life can be so unpredictable and change completely in the blink of an eye, the grief of losing your past life can be so heart-breaking!
Your health is your wealth. Look after yourself, and make sure you try and achieve all the things you want to do before the option is taken away from you.
