MS society's media portrayal of me...helpful or damaging to porceptions??

hi wendy xx

hope the ms hug imprioves very soon for you xx and hope the relaxation cd helps ill have to have a look on there and no, no one can really understand what we live with. i liked the 3 short ms soc films on fightms or what ever site it was , had one person trying to make coffe with boxing gloves (thats what i feel like) one person trying to climb stairs wearing a tight corset ( i presum this is the ms hug ? good description.) and other one someone trying to go out and post a letter wearing wellies with sand in. again good but thats just 3 of so many they could make.

get better from that soon wendy xxx love moo

Adverts in a seperate booklet get thrown straight in the bin and that’s why advertising space in the mag proper (any mag) commands much higher prices.

When I got the mag and its adverts first, my reaction was the same as yours and most other people’s - it’s a bit of a shocker at a time when a person is feeling a bit fragile anyway. Looking back, I’m not sure it was not such a bad thing - for me, anyway - to have had that nasty jolt that says, ‘this is what MS might mean for you in the future.’ I’m inclined to see it now as all part of the painful but necessary process of coming to terms with an MS diagnosis and the reality of MS. But it made me pretty uncomfortable at the time, that’s for sure.

Alison

x

Hi, I know there were letters to the MSS magazine ‘MS Matters’ a while back about the never-ending articles about MSers who were climbing mountains / working full-time in ‘big’ jobs / running marathons / touring with rock groups… etc etc etc… while many of us were at home reading the magazine and wondering how we could make it to the damn bathroom…

They did take it on board I think as recent articles have been a teensy-weeny bit more realistic.

I do agree it’s a tough one. Don’t want to scare the hell out of newbies, but on other hand yes, the posters and stuff often make it look like MS isn’t really too bad at all. It’s like all the ‘cure’ publicity. There’s so much of it that people actually think there IS a cure… ‘oh but I read there’s a cure for MS now’…

Don’t know what the answer is… but felt like a bit of a rant…

Good post, thanks…

Pat x

ive been trying to google where i can see the old ms posters that have been mentioned from the 1970’s and 80’s but not found them as images anyone know where i can find please? if you do could you put a link up thanks.

hi pat

the media is a powerful medium it has the power to inspire, build up, educate and give wrong info so i feel it should be used by the ms soc to really show the rwealities of ms, yes there are people who can run marathons this is great but like you and prob many others struggling to get to the loo is a reality too .

take care x moo

Thanks Moo

Wendyxxx

I totally agree with us needing a hard hitting campaign - for example look what the images of the recent Stroke campaign has done to increase awarenes of that illness. People thought stroke was an’old persons disease’ but now it’s seen for what it really is! Look also at the lung cancer ads - they are very graphic and disturbing but they make people think about putting a cigarette in their mouths! I am fed up with people saying "such and such has got MS and they are fine’ blah blah but they don’t see the struggles really with that person. Certainly I try to hide what I am really feeling from the big world outside, I bet they are too! Even my own husband thinks this !

hi nattiew

you make a really good point as to why the campains route needs to be more hard hitting to get the point across. i must admit when i first saw the stroke advert on tv with the woman and her face dropping it actually scared me abit but i really believe it worked and brought to attention what you should do if sadly this happens.

the lung cancer ones even dtrink driving are really hard hitting ads and im sure they work much better than the ms soc campains of well looking people and cake breaks to the mainstream public at least.

theres so many comments here ive heard of the adverts/posters that the mss had for the 1970’s period they were graphic from what i hear but they are still remembered even now! this is what we need and like you yourself my husband dont even get it i dont even tell him half because he wouldnt want to know anYWAY TO BE FAIR.

but i showed him the 3 films yesturday of the fighting back site the mss have put together with the boxing gloves making tea ect… and i was having to make him a drink at the same time he said he felt guilty for asking me after that… this is of course after having a go at me for dropping things and not being able to grip ect…

anyway i really really hope the ms soc is taking what most of us if not all of us have said about this subject i believe myself its so important to get the nation at least trying to understand what we live with. even the more well of the mser’s need the ms soc to fight there corner but the nation needs to really see what it CAN do ( not everyone granted)

its hard when you dopnt even have a doctor that really understands the condition yet alone husbands,wives,friends ect…

keep up the discussion thanks x moo

OMG I have just been to my partners Mum, who I am trying to continue to care for(I bath her once a week, do all her housework and shopping etc) and this is what I was told “I saw a lady on the TV the other day and she had MS she said that there is no reason why people with MS can’t carry on as before. So I don’t see why you make such a fuss or why you say you can’t take me out alone any more(I have to hold her up or push her in a wheelchair and have almost dropped her several times so no longer want to take the risk for both our sakes).” Maybe the MSS need to look at for instance showing MSers with ALL the varying disabilities we have in the media. I have now been made to feel like a fraud by my own family because in their words all the people on the TV this week are ok so why ar’nt you?

hi dragon lady ( soz just going by your profile name lol)

i am totally with you on what you said.

the media portrayal i have seen on tv of ms has been either the lady who wanted the law changed for assisted suicide or like you say people still working not struggling very much with there ms and the gov i know has latched on to these cases that ms isnt that bad and we feel like frauds when we most certainly are Not!

so dont you or anyone out there on this site ever let the general public and media make you believe you are!

although i apresiate the work the ms soc is doing i really am not in agreement that they are not taking a harder line getting the realties across with both the media and with the government.

it really is about time we were taken seriously there is hate crime against disabled people inc ms and its has to be stopped. i dont see much being done to truely stand our corner and really help us through all this.

ive not seen a proper ms soc person really answer this discussion here and say what will be done to help tackle this. for goodness sake im 33 i cant even walk up and down my stairs safely, cant go out on my own, dont have any proper support a[part from home help twice a week paid with personal social budget. i feel so ill all the time, my mum died with ms complation at 45, my uncle the same died 47 and its about time this was all taken seriously.

your post and others like yours just make me so annoyed and upset and why the ms soc cant use the media more helpfully and positively to show the real!!! sides of ms for whatever stage or type is beyound me. its progressive for goodness sake.

thats not saying its a fast progressive illness or even that it cant stay the same for years but like it or not whatever way you truely look at it , its degenerative, progressice, incurable ( as yet) and makes many people with it struggle every single day.

im very sorry if my description is scarey for some of you, or if ive offended in anyway this wasnt my point.

thankyou for posting im passionate to get this changed and for our socity to be in the forefront of getting results and having a true! picture of ms portrayed in the media areana in what everway that means.

thankyou x moo