Ian Douglas, UK

I was diagnosed with MS about 14 years ago, though my first neurological episode (a clinically isolated symptom in the form of transverse myelitis) was about 20 years ago. I am now secondary progressive, though still able to walk a bit with the aid of a stick. I am married with two teenage children and live in London, UK.

For the first few years after my transverse myelitis, I was told that I probably didn’t have MS. Although the cerebro-spinal fluid showed the typical bands associated with MS, this was at the time when MRI scans were just beginning to become common place and there were no signs of any lesions in my brain.

Over the next few years I began to doubt this diagnosis. My eyesight deteriorated and I was noticing an increased number of sensory disruptions – the well-known pins and needles type of discomfort. It was only about six years after my initial episode that I was given a diagnosis of benign MS.

Like many other people with MS, I have noticed an increase of attacks when I have been under stress, and it was following a particularly stressful death in the family, that I relapsed and was diagnosed as relapsing remitting (not one of my better years that one!).

My RR MS developed at a time when there was some confusion in the UK about access to disease modifying (interferon based) drugs but I was prescribed and started using Interferon beta-1a otherwise known as Avonex. I was warned by my consultant at the time that there was a significant risk that when I started on any interferon-based treatment that there was a chance of relapsing, and lo-and-behold, the beginning of the treatment that was meant to improve my health was marked with a significant step backwards. I stayed on the treatment for a couple of years, but stopped when it was clear that my condition had become secondary progressive.

For most of the years I had MS, I worked as an interest rate analyst for a large investment bank (Union Bank of Switzerland). My work involved a significant amount of international travel, visiting the Bank’s clients, discussing our views on markets and the steps we thought clients should be taking. I continued doing this up until a couple of years ago.

It would be hard to overstate how supportive my managers at the Bank were. Transport to get me back and forth from home was paid for when using public transport became too much, and technology – linked to the Bank’s own systems – were set up at my home. If I ever needed time off, there was never any problem and I suspect their supportive attitude, through minimising any pressure on me, extended my working life for a good couple of years, hopefully to both their benefit and mine!

I was lucky enough to be covered by a health insurance policy at the bank, and this financial safeguard has also been important for my psychological well being. It’s hard enough having an incurable condition, without having to worry too much about money, as so many people with long-term illnesses do. This has allowed me to get involved in work with a number of charities in the UK and among other things, I am now a Trustee of the UK’s MS Society.