Kildare woman living with MS is raising awareness & funds

WITH almost 11,000 people in Ireland living with multiple sclerosis, this month of May is a particularly important one for raising awareness of the illness and how to help research for treatments. A Kilcullen mother of twins, Anna McLeod, is one of nearly a thousand Irish people taking part in the May 50K initiative, which does just that.

The participants in the fundraiser commit to "walking, running, or rolling" 50 kilometres during the month, and in the process, raise donations for their efforts through a dedicated fundraising page. Anna has been living with MS since her diagnosis a dozen years ago, but her aim is to mark her commitment to the project with a 100K target. 

She's already more than halfway to that. 

"It's not hard, really. I'm walking up and down to the school a couple of times a day, and perhaps do a run on the school's track. It's made me realise that we all do quite a bit of exercise in our daily lives."

At the time of writing, halfway through the month, some €147,000 has been generated for the initiative across Ireland. 

"It's a global project, with the MS International Federation, so the worldwide figure is much more than that," said Anna, who is an ambassador of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland. 

The ambassadors, across all 26 counties, highlight the different realities of living with MS in Ireland while also celebrating the strength, resilience, and connection that unite the community.

A key element of MS is that it presents and affects in many different ways. 

"It's just very individual for everyone, which is something I struggled with when I was first diagnosed. When my GP first mentioned MS, I just burst into tears. I just thought, like, this is a death sentence, I'm going to end up in a wheelchair." 

Twelve years on, she has run three half-marathons, and her MS symptoms have been stable for several years. 

"Since they started developing treatments back in the 1970s, there's been loads and loads of progress. I was at a workshop recently, and they said it is the most-researched neurological condition."

From the time Anna's first symptoms brought her to her doctor, to when she got an actual diagnosis, was about three months, which is quite short for an illness that can be hard to pin down. 

"But those three months of uncertainty and waiting, with questions, yeah, it's really hard. After the confirmation, it took me a long time to be able to say 'I have MS' — I would kind of distance myself from it and say I have a 'diagnosis of MS', suggesting that it wasn't a part of me."

Anna has high praise for the medical support she receives through St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, which, along with Beaumont Hospital, is one of the Dublin area centres of excellence in treatment. 

The support from MS Ireland is equally important, and includes week-long respites in a dedicated centre in Rathgar in Dublin. 

"We're eligible for two stays a year, and it's an amazing facility. They only ask for a voluntary contribution if you can afford it."

Each of the participating individuals and teams has its own donation page on a dedicated themay50k.ie website, where Anna's can be found.