On the 21st January 2007 my mum Helen Banker finally slipped away after a very long, drawn out battle with Multiple Sclerosis (otherwise known as MS).

I was 24 years old when she died and my mums struggle with MS had been there pretty much my whole life. Her illness started to show itself during my infancy, and as I cast my mind back some of my earliest memories of her include the early signs that MS was starting to take hold. Her shuffling and turning in of her feet and the reduction in the speed she was able to walk.

The reduction in her mobility, brain fog and sheer frustration was difficult to watch and the strain this put on my father physically and mentally was huge for him and seeing his sadness was horrible.

Watching her deteriorate over the years was very tough and resulted in her having to move into nursing home permanently as her needs became too great.

MS reduced my mum to a mere shell of her former self, her limbs withered and mobility completely gone. It also took her mind as well. Being told while I was still young and at one particular visit to the hospital after she had been admitted, that “it’s best she doesn’t see you as she won’t understand or recognise who you are and it will cause her distress”, as you can imagine was heartbreaking. 

This disease took my mum, but also in a bitter twist of fate my mums sister Jane also died from complications as a result of MS just over one year later.

MS thankfully doesn’t effect everyone to the degree it did my mum and many MS sufferers are able to manage their symptoms and relapses with the help of new treatments available to them and ongoing research means for many they can live a relatively normal, happy and healthy life.

The MS Society fund world-leading research and are a support for MS sufferers and their families offering a community based  support system with an aim to offering guidance, support and ultimately put an end to MS.

It sounds a bit silly, but I couldn’t help my mum while she was here, which is something I find hard to accept even to this day and I will always feel a sense of guilt for that. 

So if I can raise some money to help The MS Society do more of their amazing work by running/walking/crawling the TCS London marathon 2022 then I will bloody well do it!!!

Thank you so much for your support and even the smallest of donations will help.

Steph xx

In loving memory of Helen Banker