At the age of 19, Leah Henderson started having double vision and had to take time off work. Soon after, she started experiencing numbness.
“I woke up one morning and noticed my thumb was quite numb and then the numbness kind of continued through my hand and then all the sudden a few days later, my whole left side was numb,” she says.
An MRI confirmed it was Multiple Sclerosis.
“When it happens it’s lifer altering,” Henderson tells CTV News. “You think it’s the end of the world especially when you’re in the depths of a relapse. You really feel like you’re hopeless.”
Now 33 years old, Henderson takes daily medication, but still experiences symptoms when she is tired or stressed. The birth of her first child was especially difficult.
“I had Sam and there’s something with people who have MS after they have a baby that they can relapse really drastically, and I did,” she recalls.
Henderson says she was constantly in need of help from family and friends. Then, she decided she wants to do something to help others.
She is the co-chair of the Women Against MS gala luncheon taking place Nov. 9 in Halifax. The event brings together women in the business community to learn about the disease.
“Most of them may not even know about MS, although we did find so many people are touched by MS, whether it’s in their family or friends, but we’re hoping they will learn a little bit more,” says Emily Snooks of the MS Society Atlantic Division.
Snooks says the event is an opportunity to educate and raise funds for important research. There have been breakthroughs in recent years, but Snooks says there’s still a long way to go.
“Some people live with a form of the disease called progressive and while there are therapies that should be to the market soon, currently there’s nothing available for people living with progressive MS,” says Snooks.
Henderson agrees that research is crucial.
“The more we can raise to do research, the more likely we come to a cure.”
