I have a difficult relationship with MS

When I was 12, I found out that my Mother has MS. No one had told me or explained it to me. Just as the school Christmas holiday started, my Mother had a relapse. I knew something was wrong, as she'd always come into my bedroom and fling open the curtains, insisting that I don't waste the day. That day, it didn't happen. I crept downstairs, I could hear my Father on the phone. He was telling someone that she had Multiple Sclerosis, and that she couldn't see. I was so scared. I had no idea what MS was, but it didn't sound good.

A couple of days later, I asked my Mother what was wrong. Despite her insistance, I couldn't shake the idea that it was terminal. Of course, MS is not terminal.

My Mother didn't seem comfortable talking about her MS. I didn't talk to anyone about it. There were problems in my family already. My Father caught me crying once, and told me that I was being selfish. At 12, I was left to do all the domestic chores for the family, under the threat that it was my naughty behaviour that was making my Mother ill. I desperately wanted to leave home.

I stayed at home until I was 18. Once I left, I never wanted to return. My relationship with my parents improved. When I was 21 my parents divorced. In the same year, I met my husband. He was unlike any man I had ever met, and I fell for him instantly.

Blissfully happy and deeply in love with this caring and sensitive man, I married him in 2006. We have been together for nearly nine years now, and I still feel as much in love with him as when we first met, but our love has become deeper. We had our first daughter in 2008. At the start of 2009, Daniel started to loose sensation in different areas of his body. I panicked.

The rest you know.