A WOMAN has told how she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis after noticing a strange symptom while driving.
Affecting over 9,000 people in Ireland, the incurable disease is the most common disabling neurological disease among young Irish adults.
Marie Pickup is a 38-year-old mum who was diagnosed with MS last December[/caption]
The brave mum-of-two had symptoms for over a year before her diagnosis[/caption]
And she is now sharing her story with others on social media[/caption]
Marie Pickup from Co Cork, is alerting people to the symptoms of the illness.
The 38-year-old’s journey began in October 2023, when she first noticed pain in her eye while driving – a strange and unsettling symptom that prompted her mother, a nurse to encourage her to get checked.
The mum then visited the eye casualty unit where she was diagnosed with optic perineuritis, a rare inflammation around the optic nerve.
Marie said: “It all started in October 2023 – and it was just one of those things where when you’re driving and you’re looking behind you to go into another lane, I would notice that my eye was sore.
“I was just kind of ignoring it to be honest – I didn’t have any reason to think it was anything major.
“It was actually my mum, who’s a nurse, that said to go into eye casualty and just let them have a look at it, because it wasn’t going away.
“They thought it was optic perineuritis, where you have a protective funnel that your optic nerve goes through becomes inflamed.”
This led to Marie getting her first MRI scan, which revealed initial lesions on her brain.
Treated with steroids to reduce the inflammation, the medication brought side effects like dizziness and severe headaches all while she began experiencing double vision.
Over the following year, Marie underwent a series of tests, including lumbar punctures and blood samples sent to specialists in Europe as doctors investigated what was wrong.
By October 2024, and over a year after her initial symptoms, her consultants were 97 percent certain she had MS.
And this diagnosis was formally confirmed in December 2024.
She said: “At that point, you’re like, am I hoping for MS, or am I hoping for whatever else they’re testing for?
“By the time October last year came around, they were 97 percent sure – and then when my symptoms progressed between then and December it was a definite diagnosis as a lesion was now on my spine.
“At this point, my whole central nervous system was being affected.”
When Marie first heard the words “multiple sclerosis,” she admits it was overwhelming.
Although she revealed she wasn’t shocked with the diagnosis, there were moments of fear and uncertainty about what this meant for her future.
At the same time, she felt slightly relieved because finally there was an explanation for the symptoms and the uncertainty around her health.
Despite her fear, Marie decided to face her diagnosis with a positive mindset, refusing to let MS define her life or limit what her future entails.
And she describes this attitude as essential in coping with the uncertainty and variability that MS brings.
She added: “I suppose, when he said it to me, it wasn’t a surprise to be told I had it – at this point I had major symptoms and a 97 percent chance of having it.
“Even though it’s not a shock, it’s just something it’s very hard to get your head around, because MS is one of those things that obviously there’s no cure for.
“The hardest thing to get my head around, was like, this is forever – and you know, there’s no getting better.
“But now you hear people who are 70 and are doing great – you wouldn’t even know they have it. It’s a completely different diagnosis from 20 or 30 years ago because treatment has progressed so much.”
MS is known as a “disease of unpredictability” because symptoms can fluctuate daily or even hourly, making it difficult to plan or feel fully in control.
And Marie experiences this firsthand.
Major warning signs of MS
In May 2024, she began experiencing double vision while in December she had a major relapse where her left leg and arm went completely numb.
Severely impacting her mobility, she needed a walking stick and began physiotherapy to regain some function.
Fatigue remains one of Marie’s most debilitating symptoms, as it does for up to 80 percent of MS patients.
She also struggles with vision problems and cognitive symptoms like difficulty concentrating.
Living with these symptoms has brought its challenges – causing her children to worry about her health, forcing her to leave her job as an SNA and leaving her constantly drained of energy.
Still, Marie finds strength in her support system.
Her husband Graeme, two sons and family have been a constant source of encouragement.
And the mum-of-two has also connected with MS Ireland along with a childhood friend who lives with the illness.
She said: “My family are just absolutely wonderful – we’ve kind of been through a few things recently that aren’t great, but we’ve just always been close.
“There’s my husband Graeme, our two boys, my sisters, mum and dad – and we’ve always been a close family, but especially in these last few years.
“I can call them whenever I want, if there’s anything going on I can call my parents or my sister and they would come – I know they would do it.
“I’ve also reached out to MS Ireland and through TikTok I’ve connected with an old childhood friend who also has MS – the support has been absolutely amazing.”
Although she can’t stress enough that she’s no MS expert, Marie has recently made major lifestyle changes to try and gain back some control.
WHAT IS MS?
Multiple Sclerosis is a complex and often unpredictable neurological condition affecting the brain and spinal cord.
In simple terms, it happens when the immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin sheath – the protective coating around nerve fibers.
This causes inflammation and damage that disrupt the messages the brain sends to the body, leading to a wide range of symptoms that can be overlooked.
Statistics show it strikes women two to three times more often than men, typically between ages 20 and 40 – the prime of their lives.
Recent lifestyle changes
Since May, she has adopted a vegan diet, increased her physical activity and began prioritising her mental health.
And she now talks openly about listening to her body, allowing herself to rest on difficult days and pacing herself to avoid burning out.
One of Marie’s biggest hurdles since her diagnosis has been discussing her MS publicly – and at first she feared stigma or being misunderstood.
But she eventually turned to TikTok to document her journey, gaining over 35,000 views and receiving messages from lots of others with MS in the matter of days.
And this brave mum-of-two said she now hopes to use her platform to challenge common misconceptions about the illness.
She added: “For the most part MS is a disability you can’t see and if you know someone with it one day they could be absolutely fine and the next they’re not.
“A lot of people with MS suffer in silence and it is a very difficult thing to have.
“Just because somebody looks okay doesn’t necessarily mean that they are, and I suppose we all need to have a bit more empathy around that.”
The mum-of-two is refusing to let MS define her life or limit what her future entails[/caption]
