MS can't hold her back

If there’s one thing that Carrie Mattern wants to tell multiple sclerosis, it’s “take a walk.”

The St. Albert woman is coming forward to tell her story about life with the degenerative nerve disease in order to drum up support for an upcoming charity walk.

“I moved out from Victoria to Calgary in 1999,” she began. “Over the next few months I started experiencing a whole bunch of symptoms and was ultimately diagnosed with MS. It was strange because I had all of these things going on and I didn’t feel that they were connected.”

She was in her late 20s at the time. The inflammatory disease attacks the myelin coating in parts of the nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of balance, impaired speech, fatigue, double vision and paralysis. There is no known cause of multiple sclerosis.

The MS Society of Canada’s website at www.mssociety.ca states that the disease is most often diagnosed in women and young adults between 15 and 40, even affecting children as young as two. It also indicates that this country has one of the highest rates of diagnosis in the world, Alberta especially.

Now 40, Mattern leads a successful life with a home based advertising and design business, and manages her MS with drugs, plus diet and lifestyle changes including reducing her stress levels, getting enough rest and doing yoga.

“When I got the diagnosis, I was like, ‘Huh! OK! Well, I know what I’m up against now.’ I know that all the symptoms were all connected so I didn’t feel like I was falling apart in general. It actually was a relief for me to know what it was. I really had quite a positive attitude about it all. I felt that it wasn’t a death sentence. I can make changes in my life.”

The honorary spokesperson for the local walk now says she lives very well, has few symptoms or flare-ups, except for numb hands and arms.

Sherri Taylor, regional manager of development for the Enerflex MS Walk, is thankful to people like Mattern for taking control of their lives and showing the community that life can still go on after diagnosis.

“That’s how we’re able to get the message out there,” Taylor said. “She doesn’t walk with an aid or anything like that. She just looks like an everyday person.”

Apart from the fundraising, spreading positive messages about having MS is so important, she continued.

“It is such an invisible disease that people aren’t aware of those that are affected. There usually isn’t anything visible to tell unless they are at further stages. Our biggest goal for this event is to bring community awareness about multiple sclerosis… and how it affects people living in their communities, and their families.”

Getting Mattern to tell her story is also important, she said, because it helps the public to recognize signs and symptoms which could lead to earlier diagnosis and better treatment results.

The MS Society is the only national voluntary organization in Canada that supports both MS research and services for those afflicted.