Multiple Sclerosis Research has always been near and dear to my heart but recently it has been dominating my thoughts...let me explain.

Growing up as a child from a broken home in the 70's, I was the odd duck in my school. People didn't divorce in those days. EVERYONE had a mom AND dad in their home! So not to go on and on about it, but my mom and I had a VERY close relationship!!

It was during my childhood that I began to see what this disease can do to a person..quite often in the PRIME of their lives!!

My mom was diagnosed with Relapsing-Remitting  MS shortly after I was born, she was advised at that time not to have any more children as the thinking at that time wasn't clear about what the full effects of pregnancy might have on the curse of the disease so I remained an only child.

My mom had several relapses as I was growing up. When I was very young, I just knew that mom's legs sometimes didn't work right, sometimes her handwriting was a little off (which was disturbing to me because I always found her penmanship so beautiful) but then she would receive medication which brought her back around again. There were tremors and other little annoyances, but for the most part (to me) she seemed fine.

She wasn't able to cope with extreme heat (humidity), so we would camp out in the living room on the hide-a-bed when the summer nights were just too darn hot to sleep upstairs in our beds. In those days central air conditioning was out of reach for a single-parent with only the one income. So we managed with a window unit and fans, lots of fans!! lol

As I continued to grow up I eventually went through my brat years (teen years) and our relationship soured for a myriad of reasons. As I began building my own life as an adult, I started my own family. Having grown up an only child from a French-Canadian family with a HUGE extended family,  and having a fascination for babies and new life, I wanted to have a BIG family. I had 3 children before I turned 23!! I loved my children with EVERY SINGLE BREATH I TOOK!! They were EVERYTHING to me - STILL ARE!!

By the time I was 25, I began to realize that the choices we make at 18 when we assume we know everything, often aren't the same choices we would make at 25. So I ended my marriage and focused on my life as a single-parent - just like my mother had been.

When my mom would relapse I would often ask if I would also get MS, and she would reassure my with the research at the time, that stated the MS was NOT hereditary. That would ease my mind and I would get on with my life without giving it another thought.

Until 1999!! Then the other shoe dropped! I began having neurological symptoms that I was POSITIVE couldn't possibly be MS, but there was definitely SOMETHING WRONG!! I had inexplicably lost strength in my hands, I wasn't able to do many things that I had always been able to. So I went to see a neurologist (ironically, it was one of the doctors my mother had seen as well. I explained who I was, whose daughter I was and that I knew I couldn't have MS but I needed him to figure out what was wrong with me. I was 28 years old when I, in actuality WAS DIAGNOSED WITH MS!! I was horrified, I hadn't even considered it a possibility...but there it was. 

Since 1993, I had been participating in the MS Walk to raise $$$ to help fund research in honour of my mom, but suddenly, my fundraising had gotten personal!! I've continued fundraising since the inception of the Walk for MS here in my hometown of Ottawa, ON, Canada. Some years, due to relapses of my own I wasn't able to physically participate but I did continue to raise $$$.  In 2007 I experienced a devastating relapse. I couldn't walk, my fine motor skills were debilitated to the point that I could no longer feed myself or write with a pen or even type on a keyboard.  I had to quit my job as I couldn't perform my duties and I also succumbed to a severe depression. My life crumbled apart as my children were going through their own "brat years" and I was immobile and felt very USELESS!! I took me years, to recover from that relapse, even longer to get the depression under control. But I eventually did.  

I went on to have two more children with a man that I love more deeply than I ever thought possible, My disease is in remission and I've actually been in pretty good health since those pregnancies. 

But my renewed sense of urgency with regards to raising funds for research to find a cure for this insidious disease has been reignited with a vengeance. As you probably are very well aware, Hell hath no Fury like a Mamma Bear whose cub is in danger!!

I'm asking you to help me raise funds for MS Research, to further the important discoveries that HAVE to be made to alter the course of this diagnosis for my beautiful daughter who is herself a young mom of a precious two-year-old boy who needs a healthy happy mom and millions of others who are afflicted throughout the world. Please help us find a cure!!

https://www.fundmycause.net/my_cause/mimi2905/ 

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