A wee bit about me...

On my 40th birthday, I had my first symptoms of what would be later diagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis. Most of us are happily minding our own business, working hard at our careers and raising a family, with plans and dreams for the future, until something unexpected arrives; uninvited and unwelcome.

I was a Group Health and Safety Adviser for a multi-disciplinary engineering company when MS struck. I also was a volunteer advanced First Aid Officer, and taught First Aid and Defib Operators courses. 

My mobility became affected, and fatigue and neuropathic pain arrived, as more lesions appeared on my brain and spine. I could no longer do the job I'd worked hard at, and loved so much.

I was devasted.

But we are only given one life, and I made a conscious decision to find something to keep me mentally interested and challenged. I decided to change the two innocuous letters 'M' and 'S' from meaning Multiple Sclerosis, to offering an opportunity to tell 'My Stories.'

Years later, I now have secondary progressive MS, and my promise to myself is that as my physical abilities makes my world smaller, my writing will allow me to create a bigger world, filled with stories. 

I will always try to write happier endings...

Lorraine Johnston