My wife has had MS for about 15 years now. For the first few years she managed quite well. She had problems walking, but a walking stick was all she needed. In the house she puts her hands on the furniture to steady herself. She calls it ‘just her way of dusting!’

Over the past couple of years I have seen her walking get slowly worse. It is terrible to watch her struggle. Sometimes when we were walking to the shops, she had to sit down half way there. She said, that her legs just stop. I must admit I didn’t really understand it. I tried, but I couldn’t imagine not being able to just put one foot in front of the other. I don’t mean to sound cruel. I would watch her grab hold of things to help her not fall over.

She started not wanting to go out as much. Then she didn’t want to go out at all, unless we took the car. I tried to tell her the exercise would do her good, but she said it didn’t work like that.

We started to argue more……….

Then I suppose I started listening properly to what she was saying. She wasn’t just getting lazier. She really couldn’t walk like she used to. She said her legs felt a cross between concrete and jelly. That made no sense to me but I know it would be hard to walk if your legs felt like that.

I wanted to help her. What she missed the most was going to the local shops, and going round to her sister’s house. We were never blessed with children but we have two young nephews whom she adores and she just loves spending time with them.

She needed to be independently mobile again. The solution was staring us in the face. A mobility scooter.

I did some research. She needed the seat to swivel, to help her get in and out of the scooter. The controls weren’t too important as her hands were fine. Her favourite colour is red, and I knew she would love a scooter in red. (I wasn’t complaining at this either as my football team wears red!) I found out that you can add a walking stick holder to the back of the scooter and this sounded ideal. My essentials list was not very long, so I had plenty of scooters to choose from.

She knew what I was planning on buying for her. But when it arrived she was totally stunned and amazed. She was pleased with how easy it was to drive. Most importantly though, she was delighted at how much more confident she felt going outside. She was equally delighted that she was not completely exhausted when she got back to the house. MS ‘fatigue’ can be totally debilitating, and using the scooter minimised amount of time she spent totally exhausted.

I am so glad I finally started to understand my wife’s condition, and could do something practical to help. It is an added bonus that I have got back some points in being a good husband, and my wife is so much happier.

I have had MS for 8 years now. Looking back I was very scared when I first got diagnosed. I didn’t really know what would happen to me in the future, I felt like I couldn’t plan anything and started living day to day. Life changed forever.

My eyes saw double. My legs would stumble and I looked like I was drunk wherever I went. My hands didn’t do what I told them to do. I felt like I couldn’t cope with one more thing going wrong with my body.

Then I looked around me. Things could be a lot worse. I still had my friends and family. I saw people with MS that were in wheelchairs and using scooters. I saw this as a bad thing then. It was a sign that they had lost their mobility. I didn’t see that they were actually doing the best thing for them, and by using wheelchairs and scooters they were reversing what the MS was doing to them. They were mobile again.

My MS got slowly worse and my mobility really began to suffer. I was still one of the lucky ones; I just had to readjust to what my body was telling me. I needed to slow down and take stock of my life. I let go of preconceptions that I had about disability. I found that just by using simple mobility equipment helped me do the things that I used to take for granted.

Journeys to the shops were no longer a chore by using my mobility scooter.  My walking was made easier by using a walking stick.  Thanks to my bathboard I no longer dreaded getting in and out of the bath.

As my MS started to get worse, my walking became a joke. As I walked I looked drunk. You have probably heard many people with MS say they look drunk when they walk. I really hated this. People avoided me, I felt really stupid.

I didn’t want any ‘help’ with walking, as I felt that this was giving in. In hindsight, though this was an understandable reaction, it didn’t help me at all. A friend said I really should get a walking stick.  I thought walking sticks were for old people not people like me in their late 20’s.

I bit the bullet though. Falling over so much and walking like a crazy woman inspired me. I went to a mobility shop. They couldn’t have been more helpful. I didn’t feel out of place there. They understood exactly what I needed.

I came away with a folding walking stick. It could fold up into my bag when I didn’t need it. When I did need it, it was fantastic. It steadied me enough to stop me falling over. It gave me more confidence when I was walking outside. Most importantly to me, I no longer looked drunk when I walked. I looked like I had a problem with my leg instead, and there is no shame in that!

I opted for a folding walking stick as that suited me perfectly. I could carry it with me at all times, but not have to use it if I didn’t want to or need to.

They came in lots of different colours, but I chose a simple black one. (Though I did jazz it up with tinsel at Christmas!)

It had a handle on the top which fitted my hand perfectly and made it really comfortable to use.

Having the walking stick really did change my life. My Multiple Sclerosis had begun to take over. I was beconing reluctant to leave the house as I knew I would fall over, as my balance was very poor, and my walking was difficult cumbersome and slow. The walking stick helped me regain my independence. It gave me confidence, and I began leaving the house a lot more. I couldn’t walk far, but when I was walking, I felt much more stable and more sure that I wouldn’t hurt myself by falling again.

If I had to carry bags, I just used a ruck sack. This kept my hands free, for using my stick, and kept my balance much better, as I wasn’t lobsided.

All in all, what felt like a step backwards was a move in the right direction.