Catherine Hunter, 47, quickly started feeling worse and worse during exercise classes and was losing her balance more often.
Catherine, 47, says she was ‘scared’ when first diagnosed with MS (Image: Glasgow Live)
A mum who was suffering from pins and needles was eventually diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
Catherine Hunter, who lives in Cumbernauld but is originally from Penicuik, Midlothian, was diagnosed with the disease in 2014. Originally putting the pain down to her new trainers, Catherine quickly started feeling worse and worse during exercise classes and was losing her balance more often.
The 47-year-old nurse was worried it could be MS and was in denial – but four months later she was left unable to walk. Following tests, medics eventually confirmed her diagnosis, around six months after her first symptoms. The mum-of-two told Glasgow Live: “To start with it was fear. Your brain goes to immobility, not being able to walk, everything’s going to get worse, not being the mum or nurse I want to be. You lose your sense of self.
“It’s life-changing, there’s all these invisible symptoms, emotions and fears. Even now, you have dark days where you go back there, but it’s not so often now. My kids witnesses all this, and I didn’t want to be this mum that was sick, but I was. I’ve blocked them out, because they were dark days.”
Catherine has taken a number of steps to ensure she lives healthily with MS(Image: Glasgow Live)
District nurse Catherine began treatment and took a year out from work. She has got back to work, though, and has taken steps to live well with MS. Catherine said: “Changing job helped, and I found a specialist physio in my area. I did a lot of neuroplasticity, re-training the brain new habits, and I found over time it really helped. Even though everything was slower, my mindset changed to that everything is moving forward, but just at a slower and wobblier pace, and that has been great.”
Over the last 12 years, Catherine has reached out to charities and taken up activities like yoga and cold water swimming to help her mental and physical health. She has also adopted a vegan diet and reduced her saturated fat intake, which has all been a part of her efforts to keep as healthy as possible.
She said: “I had a relapse three years ago, and it felt like being diagnosed again. I went to the Overcoming MS retreat, and it was wonderful. The facilitators there are all living well with MS and it feels like being in that community that they just get it – they understand. You can talk about anything. Engaging with these circles are so important.
“There are so few people with MS that believe exercise, reducing stress and diet can make a difference, but I know it can – I live through that. Not everyday is perfect, but finding tools and community and engaging with charities without a feeling of shame is important.”
One of the keys for Catherine is living life at a slower pace(Image: Glasgow Live)
According to the charity Overcoming MS, more than 17,000 in Scotland have the disease. Furthermore, a third of people surveyed in Scotland were uncertain that lifestyle changes could make a real difference. MS awareness week comes next month, and Catherine is looking to educate others with the disease, and without, that a healthy life can be lived with the incurable disease.
She added: “I thought it was going to lead to being in a wheelchair, but I know now the statistics are low. But even if your mobility dies reduce like mine, your life isn’t over and it doesn’t prevent an active life. Things change, I walk slower, and I find new things.
“I can’t hill walk now, but I can cold water swim and it makes me feel free and alive, I never thought I’d feel like that again. I’m also still employed, 12 years later I’m still there and I think I will be until I retire.”
Catherine is encouraging anyone living MS to reach out to charities such as Overcoming MS and local charity Revive MS, who have helped keep her living well with the disease. More information about the charity’s work can be found online here.
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