Climbing MOUNTAINS

One woman living with multiple sclerosis opens up about her reasons for helping others like her

- FRANCESCA WOODSTOCK

It was almost 35 years ago when Claire Mills was told her future looked uncertain, and that she faced a life of fatigue and disability. Two years earlier, in 1987, in her final year of medical school at the University of Sheffield, Claire had spent three days in bed as her head pounded, her eyes saw double and she suffered from vertigo. She had sensed the symptoms might be serious and was referred to a neurologist.

But Claire, now 59 and a breast cancer specialist, had already begun to suspect she might know what was wrong.

'I asked the consultant if it might be multiple sclerosis,' Claire remembers. 'He said he thought so, but this was before MRI scans were available, so he said it was a matter of waiting until it occurred again.'

A nonhereditary condition, multiple sclerosis (MS) affects the brain and spinal cord, and can lead to a number of symptoms, including problems with vision, limb movement, sensation or balance. In the UK, there are over 130,000 people living with MS - that's almost one in every 500 people and nearly 7,000 people are newly diagnosed each year.

Prescribed steroids, Claire had managed to catch up and sit her final exams in 1988. She began working as a junior doctor, but the following year, a second episode struck, which was so severe that she was bed bound for two years. And this time, she was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), which meant the symptoms would come and go.

'It was harder to bounce back, mentally and physically. The symptoms were debilitating and I couldn't move,' Claire says. 'My career was on hold, but there was a possibility that it was over. It was a dark period in my life.'