Multiple sclerosis kit provides stark insight into life with condition

dailyrecord.co.uk:

For mum-of-two Amy Newton, it simply wasn’t enough to attempt to describe to her family what it’s like to live with lifelong incurable neurological condition, multiple sclerosis (MS).Words alone couldn’t do justice when explaining her round-the-clock challenges to medical students who will become the doctors of tomorrow, and to whom people like Amy will turn for some blessed relief from their symptoms.Although, as Amy explained, everyone’s MS is peculiar to them, she experiences the most typical symptoms, which include problems with vision, limb movement, sensation and balance.She’s also had to teach herself to tolerate the constant pain, which easily surpasses that of childbirth – by a long shot.Her children, Chrissy and Ruaridh, were aged only eight and six when, 12 years ago, she was diagnosed with MS after experiencing numbness in one side of her face, extreme tiredness and an inexplicable, uncharacteristic tendency to become highly emotional and dissolve into tears.

Fearing how her visual impairment might progress, she asked husband Peter, whom she describes as “an exceptional carer,” to paint their home in bright hues and plant flowers in the garden for fear she’d lose the ability to see colours.When the left side of her face drooped like it had melted, it terrified her kids, making her son wail and run to his room.She had to find a way of explaining to her own children, and to their friends, why she was “walking funny.”Amy needed them to understand that she wasn’t drunk.

And she had to make them appreciate that there was a reason why she could no longer do many of the fun things she once did.That’s why, after her diagnosis at the age of just 34, she set about creating a kit that would let other people, especially