Shani Lynch had no reason to suspect she was suffering from MS when she first felt her fingers go numb.
“I was in my 20s and had tingling fingers and didn’t really want to walk very far,” she said.
“I felt a bit stiff, but I didn’t really think anything of it.”
Looking back now, she believes she was developing relapsing remitting MS.
It’s a type of MS which causes symptoms to reappear, or become significantly worse, over a period of time.
Then she fell ill when she was in her 40s and struggled to recover.
“I had an awful bout of what I thought was flu,” she said. “It basically just took my legs and I was struggling to walk from there on.”
‘What’s the use of a nursery nurse who can’t run?’
At the time Shani, now 66, was working as a nursery nurse at a local school.
But when the mother of two young children, aged seven and nine, was diagnosed with MS shortly afterwards, she felt it was time to give up the job that she loved.
“I tried to go back to work, but because I’d had this awful bout, I was thinking more of the children in the school,” she explains.
“What’s the use of a nursery nurse who can’t run around the playground?
“I gave up the job which was a shame because I loved it. But it was better that I had more energy for the family as well.”
Highland woman with MS: My symptoms got worse
Shani, of Muir of Ord, near Inverness, was diagnosed with MS in 1996 after she was referred to hospital for tests.
It is a condition affecting the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves making up the central nervous system controlling everything in the body.
Gradually her health declined with her mobility most affected.
She started walking with the aid of sticks before realising she needed a wheelchair.
Shani describes her life with the disease as one of frustration. She gets bouts of pain and suffers from spasticity, which interferes with her movement.
Going out for day trips somewhere new can sometimes prove challenging because she needs to research disabled facilities such as toilets.
There are places to go for treatments and Shani benefits from physio and massage sessions at an oxygen therapy centre in Inverness.
“I feel cream crackered when I come out, but it does improve me,” the Highland woman with MS says.
“Once I’ve done a session I can feel a bit of something in my feet. Quite a lot of the time they’re completely numb so that’s wonderful.”
Part of her physio involves cycling on a machine and she recently completed an “exhausting” 30-mile cycle to raise money for improvement works at the centre.
On her first unusual meeting with her husband
Her husband John has been a big support and took early retirement so he could look after his wife.
She now has secondary progressive MS, which means her disability will now steadily get worse instead of relapses.
Everyday tasks such as signing her name on a document can be challenging because she now has a tremor in her right arm.
But John helps her out and also now cooks all of their meals.
The couple first met in unusual circumstances when John was stationed at the former RAF Cottesmore station in England.
“My boss had bought a new pub in Rutland not far from RAF Cottesmore and was extending the car park,” the former catering worker said.
“We came across a well which had been buried over and they wanted someone to explore it in case there was treasure at the bottom of it.
“Then along came my husband who was a diver. He went down the well and found absolutely nothing – but he did find me.
“That’s how we found one another.”
Anyone interested in donating to Shani’s fundraiser can find it here.
Conversation