Debra Leslie recalls a frightening experience she had several years ago. She was driving at night when she saw a vehicle coming at her from the other direction. It looked as though the approaching vehicle was in her lane and might slam into her.
It turned out that Leslie’s eyes were playing tricks on her. Although she didn’t know it at the time, she had multiple sclerosis, a disease that disrupts the body’s nervous system.
Leslie learned the truth in the fall of 1982, when a doctor confirmed she had MS. Since then, she has been learning to cope with the different hurdles that MS has thrown across her path.
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Leslie enjoyed riding horses, but had to abandon the hobby because of pain and weakness in her legs. She managed to keep her job at a Brandon, Man., department store until 1987, when weakness in her limbs interfered with her ability to work.
“Some days I would be really good and other days not so good at all, so they let me go.”
Now the 41-year-old Brandon resident finds it hard to walk a few metres at a time. She has a motorized scooter that helps her get around independently.
She has a 10-year-old son and is divorced. She believes the MS had much to do with the deterioration of her marriage.
“I don’t think my partner would ever say that to you, but that’s what I believe the bottom line is.”
Despite the constraints that MS has placed on her life, Leslie resists any feelings of self-pity. One of her ambitions is to help others who are learning to cope with the disease.
Last fall, Leslie provided moral support to an MS sufferer who was finding it hard to walk.
“I went as far as I could in helping this person deal with MS,” said Leslie, who lives in a first-floor apartment not far from Brandon’s Keystone Centre.
“It ended up we became more like good friends just talking on the telephone.”
The woman, who has three children and a supportive husband, eventually underwent a treatment that improved her ability to walk. She visited Leslie the day before Christmas.
“She came down the hall and if I could walk as good as she could walk it would be wonderful. It really worked for her.”
Leslie is now interested in offering peer support to other people affected by MS. The Manitoba division of the MS Society of Canada is developing a program that will help her and others do just that.
Support program
The Manitoba division has started a pilot project this year in the province’s Westman region. The aim is to help people with MS gain practical information and emotional support. Volunteers in the one-on-one support program will offer their listening skills while sharing their experiences of living with MS. The program will complement the services of health-care professionals.
“Someone who has actually gone through it knows what it’s like emotionally,” explained Gerri Pearson of the MS Society. “Having experienced it just makes it a lot more credible.”
The peer volunteers will be trained and given ongoing support. The training begins in April.
Pearson said if there is interest, the program could eventually go provincewide.
MS is the most common disease of the central nervous system affecting young adults in Canada. About 50,000 Canadians have the disease. It attacks the myelin covering of the central nervous system, causing inflammation and often destroying patches of the myelin. That disrupts the natural flow of nerve impulses and can result in vision problems, numbness, loss of balance, extreme fatigue and even paralysis.
The effects of MS vary. However, Pearson said most people affected by the disease continue to lead productive lives.
