The Essex woman with an 'incurable' condition climbing an enormous skyscraper
An Essex woman with a chronic, incurable and unpredictable condition is scaling the hights of a 1,000-step skyscraper. 62-year-old Karen Bellerby is climbing The Gherkin skyscraper in London in support of charities who help her with her multiple sclerosis (MS).
Karen, from Merks Tey, will be taking on the challenge as part of the Colchester charity MS-UK’s Tower Walk, which will see 60 people power their way to the top to raise vital funds for people living with MS.
This challenge is no mean feat when you have a chronic, incurable and unpredictable illness. When she was diagnosed with MS in 2019, Karen’s job involved a lot of public speaking, which made her first symptoms all the more terrifying.
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She said: “I had a bizarre feeling that I was slurring my words when I was talking. As a regular public speaker, this would been catastrophic for me, and although my husband Mark and daughter Lauren assured me that I sounded OK, the feeling was horrid, and it led me on the road to diagnosis. I think my family were as shocked and surprised by the doctors and consultants telling me I had MS as much as I was. I didn’t feel ill.”
MS is a very unpredictable disease, caused by the immune system attacking myelin, the protective coating around nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms can range from mobility issues, bladder and bowel dysfunction, cognitive problems and extreme fatigue to vision issues and depression and anxiety.
Relapsing-remitting MS is the most common type, where people can live sometimes for years without symptoms – this is known as being in remission – only to be hit by a relapse and the possibility of lasting disability.
Karen said: “That’s been the hardest thing to come to terms with. This black cloud of diagnosis that maybe I will get really ill, but never really knowing.” One way Karen has found to cope with the uncertainty is to take on challenges and push herself, all while raising money for, and awareness of, the cause.
“Not being ill right now, and so far, having avoided day-to-day life-changing symptoms has made me more determined to do all that I can for as long as I can,” she says. "The Tower Walk is a fabulous, fun opportunity to see some of the city that I love, and help this charity to support more people living with MS.”
More than 60 people will take on the Tower Walk challenge on Sunday (October 13) to raise vital funds for MS-UK, the charity that helps people living with multiple sclerosis live happier and healthier lives. To support her mission, visit Karen’s fundraising page by clicking here.