Hope is not lost in the UK!

Everyday living
1

MY name is Marco. I am 33 years old. I have been living in London for almost 9 years. I have MS since I was 20 but it was never diagnosed until 2009. That makes 9 years of RRMS activity without treatment.

That is, although my RRMS was not yet diagnosed yet I was resolute and able to live life to the fullest. I came to London, determined to realize a satisfactory life and in fact I kind of managed to achieve important goals. In here, among many other experiences I got my degree in Anthropology and my MA in Human Rights.

However, MS kept on always interfering with my life, especially at work. She does not care if you know she is living inside of you. She will do and behave as she pleases.

In 2008 I came back in Italy few years ago and I have been struck by a deleterious MS attack which added to the many other lesions I had since 2000. It is after this huge and strong attack that doctors finally diagnosed RRMS. Although I improved my physical abilities, I never fully recovered from its damages,
Since then my life turned upside down but slowly I am establishing some sort of balance, with help of those around me.

With my girlfriend we are striving to live happily and free. It is no easy to achieve this from where we are. We are living in Cagliari in Sardinia. A loving, sunny touristic town by the sea, but in truth it is in a very depressed area where it is very difficult to get any kind of serious job which can allow us to lead an adult life.

After a very long and painful period of reflection we decided that emigration probably will be for us the best chance we have to get back in the real world.

The UK seemed to us to be the best practical solution. Initially we thought to move to London, however I preferred to in smaller and less busy place. That is, we decided to go and live in Brighton. Probably, because under some many aspects, we feel that it is a seaside town like our beloved Cagliari. But also because we want to live in a medium sized town which seems to be quite lively and young in spirit. The only thing is that we are not sure how Brighton maybe good for us to find a job.

We are wondering how is life for a person with MS in there? I have some limits, mainly due to attention and dizziness and my walking is limited but not absent. However, I just finished my MA in 2011 and this might give you and idea that I still can be of some use at work. Nonetheless, I am afraid that society in the UK maybe very profit-oriented and that in the end they don’t want nor need any workforce form people like us.

I wanted to ask you about what do you think of the situation in Brighton and the UK regarding the MS community. How do employers behave towards our community?

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read my post,

Marco

2

Hi Marco and welcome to the site.

You certainly have a commendable attitude to dealing with MS. You are certainly not letting the bggr wreck your life and are doing what you can to make the best of things

The UK is in recession and although it’s not as bad as Italy, I suspect, things are not good here especially for disabled people wishing to find employment. You may be lucky but it would be a gamble.

I’ve visited Brighton, it’s not my sort of place, too cosmopolitan. I’m a country girl at heart.

Good Luck in whatever you decide to do.

3

Employment in Brighton may be a problem although there is a University. It is commuter land - many people going towards London to work [40 minutes by train], and there are quite major hubs of employment between the two.

As Annie said the UK is also in recession but if you have marketable skills there are jobs out there. Employers are, in theory, not allowed to discriminate between disabled and able bodied people.

Your dizziness could possibly be helped with medication [betahistine or stemetil seem to be the two drugs most used] and you may find that your cognition improves when the worry over whether/where to move is settled.

You don’t say if you are on any of the DMDs [rebif, copaxone etc] but you are an EU citizen so if you get to see an MS specialist neurologist you should be offered one if you meet the criteria.

Liz

4

Thank you so much for your honest replies, we hope we will get some more, we are treasuring all the advice you may want to give us. As you know, this bggr can scare the h*ll out of us but we will not give up. We ought to prize every single achievements we may get, even the smallest!

Take good care :slight_smile: