Living With Multiple Sclerosis

[Kandis is sitting facing the camera and talking about her experience with MS. The video is 4:13 minutes long.]

I'm Kandis, and I’m a 31-year-old mortgage agent from Toronto. I've been living with MS for about eight years and I was diagnosed in 2012.

So, 2012 was one of the hardest years of my entire life. And by October of that same year my younger brother unfortunately lost his battle with cancer and passed away. So, that year was just you know the year the rug was pulled from under my feet.

I didn't know what to do, I felt like my entire world was just crumbling beneath my feet, I think, as young people we live with this kind of like false idea that we're invincible, or that nothing bad could ever happen to us.

I didn't really know where to turn, or what to do, I just knew that I needed to start seizing every opportunity that was thrown my way.

MS is an extremely uncertain disease and after, you know, seeing how my brother's life was cut short I just knew that I couldn't waste any more time.

So, I wanted to do something big, I wanted to do something I'd always dreamt of, and I kind of set my, set my mind on moving away for a year, traveling the world and by December of 2012, I had one goal in my mind which was that I wanted to move away to Australia specifically for one year.

Thankfully, after I explained to my doctor how important this was for me, we did find a way that I didn’t… I wouldn't have to prioritize my MS over doing something that I had dreamt of and really, really wanted.

So once that was worked out, we had a plan in place for how I was going to manage my MS, and the next thing you know, I’m across the world living in Melbourne, Australia.

I just thought I was nuts and I really, really wanted to go home a lot of times, but I just had to keep reminding myself, why I came in the first place.

And I just knew that if I turned back and gave up now, I would regret it forever. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I just could not give up on basically. So I stuck it out and eventually I did make friends, some of the best friends that I've ever had in my life, I got a job, I saw the country, I loved it, it was obviously one of the best years of my life once I let it be that.

But you know finally a year goes by and it’s time for me to come home. After I got back, I had an appointment with my neurologist and I was really, really happy we quickly got my health care plan back on track and I was you know just getting used to living back in Toronto.

Now, I have a job that I love, I've been with my partner Brad for about six years and, you know, we’re planning for the future I'm not going to lie it can be scary trying to plan for the future when you don't know what your MS is going to kind of throw at you.

But I think what this experience really taught me was that my MS doesn't have to be an obstacle it can actually be a motivator to push me to do things that are outside of my comfort zone or that maybe before my diagnosis I wouldn't have had you know the courage to even try.

So, I know it sounds cliché but honestly with little bit of belief, faith, determination and support of you know people that you love and that love you, you really can do about anything and MS doesn't have to get in the way of that at all.