A good life (honestly!) with Multiple Sclerosis…
I work (for now), I love, I live, I have fun. Just with wheelchairs and drugs and spasms and stuff...
15 July 2021
Mark Webb is starring in the latest ‘We Are Undefeatable’ ad campaign – to encourage people with long-term health conditions to get active. [A Guest Blog for the http://MSSociety.org.uk ] He tells us about his journey to becoming a ‘hunk in one bicep’… Pre-diagnosis Once upon a time, I was a high flying school rugby captain and a sporty all-rounder. Then a flashy ski rep living the high life in the Swiss Alps. Then not so long ago but still a distant memory, I worked for a health and fitness brand. Every Saturday I’d be sweating away in the gym and in spin classes. I’d complete an annual triathlon and swim at least twice a week. But something wasn’t right. I would […]
23 June 2021
[A guest blog I wrote for the PRCA https://prca.org.uk , our worldwide PR body. Click here to skip past my nonsense and listen to the podcast: https://www.prca.org.uk/Disability-at-the-Table.] What do we want? Real change in Diversity! When do we want it? Now! Yeah, right. More work to be done. Launch day is upon us. Finally I can proudly confirm I’m helping lead the charge – or in my case the slow, creaky wheelchair roll – with the PRCA’s shiny new ‘Equity & Inclusion Advisory Council.’ (EIAC). I’m the lead in the Disability workstream. As such, I’ll be pushing hard for disability to figure in every Diversity & Inclusion conversation. We’re not there yet, despite our community being comfortably the largest […]
19 May 2021
In a double episode of ‘Back in the Game’, I am proud and excited to return: To blogging. After a brief and pesky technology pause. Information Technology was never a strong point of mine. My 1980s ZX Spectrum coding got as far as ’10 PRINT “I love you”, 20 GOTO 10. Pop here for some nostalgia if you recall the excitement of Space Invaders and 48k Ram. Or for some jaw-dropping and some pitying of us old folk if you’re younger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum To life more than 100 metres beyond our garden boundary. I’ve played it super careful these last sixteen months, but new Covid infections are now encouragingly low. And I nearly wet myself about our second jab booking. (Not […]
30 March 2021
One of the technical terms I use to describe MS damage to the central nervous system in my brain and spinal cord is ‘icky’. That covers everything off pretty well. My own sodding immune system is wading into the protective sheath around my nerves and leaving permanent scarring, hardening and damage. Not strategically or predictably. Totally randomly. My immune system ‘bomb runs’ show up on MRI scans like small blobs of cotton wool or some well-chomped, discarded chewing gum. Icky. Classics lesson for you: ‘Sclerosis’ comes from the Greek σκληρός sklērós, “hard”. (ie ‘hardening’, ‘scars’, ‘ewww’) Doubly icky is the knowledge that my actual brain is shrinking. ‘Brain atrophy’ is, I think, the proper term. Happens to us all as […]