It is three days after St. Pauls’ Walk for Multiple Sclerosis. Otherwise known as our(get ready for a mouthful) Jaymen Built and presenting sponsor The Cooperators Saik Insurance Services Ltd. MS Walk.
While preparing for the walk this year I realized that my hope to find a cure, has turned into faith, because I really can see especially over the last 10 years, the results of our hard work and dedication.
Eleven Canadians are diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis every day. Our goal is to be a leader in finding the cure and to enable those affected by MS to enhance their quality of life.
I am the chairperson for the Lakeland Advisory Council and my only sibling has Multiple Sclerosis.
Cara worked full time at Shoppers Drug Mart, graduated college, modeled and had just gotten her first vehicle. She was in her mid twenties when we realized something was really wrong with her body. Some of the first and, slowly becoming consistent, signs were, her left foot would become numb and drag making it very difficult to walk; extreme fatigue to the point of not being able to work and numbness on one side of her body..
I remember the day she realized there was more wrong with her body than she wanted to admit.
She was going up the stairs in our shared condo to do some chores. I was reading on the couch in our living room and she sat a the bottom of our stairs and she said, ‘I am just so tired Jenny, I can’t even make it up these stairs to clean the bathroom.’
I said, ‘Cara go to our doctor. You need to find out what is happening, don’t worry about the damn bathroom!’
After that day our lives were never ever the same.
I can’t remember how many lesions she had on her MRI scan, but there was more than enough for conclusive evidence that she had Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. Our GP was right, she knew that it was MS, she just needed the proof so she could make a referral to a Neurologist.
Cara’s health rapidly declined within the first five years. She had to give up her cane to use a walker and at that point she had to give up driving too. She started to have seizures and was prescribed a common drug that caused the Steven-Johnson Syndrome. It almost killed her, she was put in the intensive care burn unit in the University Hospital in Edmonton for a couple of months. That was when she went from an assisted living group home to a long term care facility.
I would say that the first five years were the toughest. She was suicidal and I was struggling emotionally and mentally so it was getting harder for me to help her without losing myself in the process. It all happened so fast, I had somehow managed to make some very difficult choices on her behalf while suffering a complete nervous breakdown.
I am so thankful that we have come through all of that. Just to be here working tirelessly to help advocate, find the cure and make life easier for her and others like her.
For our walk this year we had great weather, and most importantly a whole community who comes together year after year to show MS what we are made of.
My son Chase, while at the walk, pushed his Aunt Cara down main street for the first time since she moved here 2 years ago. I felt so proud of him after someone had came up to me the following day and said she had noticed how attentive he and his girlfriend Rae were with her at the walk. They showed her our local tourist attraction, the UFO Landing Pad and took pictures. They also had a special Team Cara’s Corner t-shirt made , so the Auxiliary staff at the extended care facility could easily dress her for the walk that morning. These were things I didn’t even think to do!
Now that Cara has become Progressive her appearance might make some people uncomfortable because she can move very little, if not at all, from the neck down. What Chase and Rae did for their aunt that day was an act of greatness. They were selfless, thoughtful and very attentive.
I am so very thankful that we are closer and closer to finding the cure for MS. I am even more thankful that things are looking up for Progressive MS now too. The time, devotion and tenacity of this MS Community is really proving itself. I can say that things ten years ago felt pretty bleak and hopeless, that has changed dramatically.
On a personal level I still believe WE will end this disease. We call it Canada’s disease because demographically there are thousands and thousands of people in this part of the world with who suffer, 1 in 385 Canadians live with MS. Alberta has become a world leader in research having one of the highest rates of MS suffers, we believe that research is the path to finding a cure.
With continued acts of greatness more and more people will understand the urgency to find the cure. I no longer want Canada to be associated with MS. I do however want to advocate and raise funds for the research that will lead us to the end of this disease. I believe in strength in numbers, I also believe that the MS Society is a community of powerful action minded people that are leading the way to a cure. I am humbled and proud to be a part of this MS Community and will continue the fight until the cure is found.
Thank-you for taking the time to reading this.
If you would like to donate or learn about volunteer opportunities please use the link I have provided.
https://mssociety.ca
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