Juha Niemela

Country: Finland
Age: 39
Type of MS: Secondary progressive MS
Year of diagnosis: 2001
Profession: Caretaker



I first noticed strange feelings in the summer 1997 when I was playing volleyball and badminton. I had problems handling the ball accurately. I was living in Tampere at the time, but I was not brave enough to go to the doctor about this.

The strange feelings continued and slowly become stronger. This was a tough time for me. My body was getting weaker and at the same time my work, family and university diploma were all getting more demanding. I finally visited the doctor when I lost the feeling in my left arm. I was working for Nokia at the time and in the spring of 2001 my company doctor sent me for some tests in hospital, after that it only took couple of weeks to a diagnosis of MS. The diagnosis was hard for me, but it was a relief to finally know what was wrong and that it wasn’t cancer.

I knew one acquaintance with MS, who was in a wheelchair and I found it difficult to believe I had the same disease. My family had not heard of MS before, so the diagnosis was also very hard for my wife and for my parents.

My neurologist suggested I retire, he said having MS may make it more difficult to work in a demanding environment. But I continued working at Nokia without any sick leave or negative consequences to my work. At the time I was doing a diploma about Nokia in the city of Tampere and this time was very hard for me. I had to take a holiday from work and to move to my grandmother’s house to finish my studies.

In 2003 my doctor put me in touch with the MS society of Finland (Suomen MS-liitto ry). They gave me a lot of information, organised a holiday for my family and I in Lapland and a short Tai-chi course, which I enjoyed.

In 2007 I needed an intensive MS rehabilitation course. I was lucky because this was covered by a Finnish public pension institution. As a person with MS it’s possible to get some social support MS in Finland. But the situation could be better – there needs to be more visibility and discussion about the disease.

I retired from my position as Software Project Manager at Nokia in the summer of 2008. This was a very sad time for me as I had been there for over ten years. Because of my MS I was not able to look for any new job opportunities in my company. That Autumn, I started to work three evenings per week as a caretaker for a school in Tampere. Later I learnt that I could have asked Nokia to give me appropriate work that I could do with MS. I will just have to live with this!

Without the support of my family my life would be much harder. Luckily my wife works as a physiotherapist so she understands my problems. Now that I understand MS better, it's even more evident that I must try to keep my body in good shape.

I'd like to advise people living with MS to avoid stress and also keep your body in a good shape despite the fact that you don’t always feel good.


MS Society of Finland