Don’t get me wrong, I love to see the sun! Who doesn’t! Its one of those enigmas in life, people are happier when its sunny (unless your a vampire, then that’s just unfortunate! Move to Forks, Washington,USA! I hear its nearly always cloudy there!)
Like i was saying, I’m happy to see the sun, as long as i can stay cool & its not humid! It’s the humidity that’s the hardest to combat for us MSrs, staying cool can be achieved a number of ways but how do you combat humidity? Answers on a postcard 🤔😉
Having a pretty shitty day today tbh, so fatigued its unreal! Every day lately seems like I have to push myself harder, just to move my body and that’s without actually thinking about what I want my body to do! That takes even more effort! Long gone are those days that I can do things without thinking!
Right now, MS sucks but guess what, I was looking through my pictures on my phone, to find something that reflects my current mood…
That’s when I saw this photo and everything changed!
This photo was taken last Sunday when I yes me, drove the furthest I have ever driven (90 miles to South Yorkshire) to see my MS sister & the rest of our faaaamily! Of course I had my DebbieRahRah as SatDeb & navigator. What makes me feel more proud, was that I drove without feeling nervous!
This beautiful lady is my Kindred Spirit, she has helped me through my MS more than she’ll take credit for! I only need to see her smiley face and my mood lifts!
Thank you Sarah Hickman for making my day cheerier!
(And I know exactly what she’s saying when she reads this… Either “oh behave” or “stoppppp”)
My last yoga practice on Saturday was not a good one, unfortunately I was in too much pain & I just couldn’t concentrate on anything else! Tbh, I could have quite happily gathered my belongings and walked out of the class! I didn’t though & for that I’m incredibly proud of myself!
MS has changed my life, oddly and yet profoundly for the better.
When I was first diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2010 i was shocked and yet relieved to understand what had been happening to me for such a long while. Once i started to come to terms with my diagnosis in 2011 I felt ready to start fundraising. Around the 1st anniversary of my diagnosis, I decided that I wanted to raise money for the MS Trust, the wonderful charity that has helped me during my diagnosis & whom continue to help me every day with my MS.
Of all the things to do walking over fire seemed the most appealing! I told myself that if I could do that then I could cope with & be stronger than my MS!
Karen Sterling – Owner of ‘Blaze’ Firewalk company to the left of me in the picture, helping to guide me across the hot embers.
A fun event
It was one evening last year, when I was with a group of friends that an event called The Color Run was mentioned. One of my friends searched for it on the internet, just from the pictures that I saw, instantly I wanted to participate in such a fun event. The trouble was it was a 5k run, I can’t walk half a kilometre let alone run 5!
What made it even more appealing was that it was coming to Birmingham! Before I knew it I had emailed the company asking if it was suitable for disabled to take part!
It didn’t take long for the company to email me back but whilst I was waiting I carried on looking at ‘the Color Run’ website.
The Color Run™, also known as the Happiest 5k on the Planet, is a unique colour race that celebrates healthiness, happiness, individuality, and giving back to the community. Less about your 10-minute-mile and more about having the time of your life, The Color Run is a five-kilometre, un-timed race in which thousands of participants are doused from head to toe in different colours at each kilometre. The fun continues at the finish line with a gigantic “Color Festival,” using more coloured powder to create happiness and lasting memories, not to mention millions of vivid colour combinations. Trust us, this is the best post-5k party on the planet! With only two rules, the idea is easy to follow:
Wear white at the starting line
Finish plastered in colour
Now the single largest event series on the planet, The Color Run is exploding since our debut event in January of 2012, with 1.5+ million runners in 2013 and over 2 million taking part in 2014.
I knew from reading that how much I wanted to do it now & hoped that the course was wheelchair friendly & someone would be happy to push me when I needed it!
Then I read the next part on the website
“Color Runners” vary in demographics and reasons for running. With no winners or official times, The Color Run caters to anyone – 2 year olds to 80 year olds, first time runners to professional athletes. Some Color Runners participate as a celebration and capstone of their healthy living accomplishments, while others participate for reasons unique to them.
No stopping me
It still didn’t say anything about disabled & wheelchairs. I guessed it was pushchair friendly as no one is going to make a 2 year old walk/run 5k! I opened the email & was so excited to read that YES ‘the Color Run’ is wheelchair friendly!
That was it, no stopping me! I updated my facebook status asking if anyone else fancied the challenge! It wasn’t long until I managed to get a team of 10, including myself looking forward to the big day. I decided this time I wanted to raise money & awareness for MS-UK. A wonderful charity dedicated to giving support and information to anyone affected by MS.
Earlier last year I helped support MS-UK with there ‘Purple pants’ campaign. I managed to get everyone in the Pilates class I attend to wear purple, raising MS awareness!
I spoke to my Pilates instructor Kate King (standing to the left of me in the picture above) at ‘The Pingles Leisure Centre’ and told her what I wanted to do. My aim was to walk as much of the Color Run as possible, knowing it wouldn’t be much because of the pain & weakness I have in my legs. I thought that if I could work on my ‘Core muscles’ then hopefully that would help with my balance, always a must when walking! I also needed to strengthen my legs! Kate was up for the challenge!
Game on
That was it, that was my new challenge! I upped the amount of Pilates classes I attended and started going into the gym more often too. Gradually my friends joined me in the gym as well. It was fantastic, my moods started to get better, I was feeling much more positive about things and I was smiling a lot more!
I set up 3 different ways for people to sponsor us, the online ‘JustGiving’ page, sponsor forms and by text using ‘JustTextGiving’
We decided on a name for our team, BAM4MSUK. It made sense to us, By Any Means for MS-UK! I told everyone in the group that it didn’t matter how they wanted to take part in the event just as long as they had fun, after all this was to celebrate my 5th anniversary of diagnosis, proving that I am stronger than my MS! I knew I would be walking what I could and in my wheelchair for the rest, there were people who wanted to run and alsopeople who wanted to be part of my support team to help push me!
3 of us in the team were ‘MegaSpecials’ *Amazing people who have MS* this made it even more special for me. I realised how incredibly lucky I am to have such wonderful friends! There were a lot more of my ‘MegaSpecial’ friends that wanted to do it but just couldn’t for one reason or another. I get the feeling that after hearing how much fun we had they’ll be taking part in the next ‘Color Run’ or whatever challenge I decide to arrange.
Thebigday!
Gathering the MegaSpecials
It was finally here, the day I had been waiting for! All the arrangements were in place for the team to meet. I was going with my closest friend and chief wheelchair pusher ‘Debbie’
My ‘MegaSpecial Sistahh’ Sare had come down from Doncaster, South Yorkshire with her Son Lewis, who wanted to take part in ‘the Color Run’ to celebrate his 16th birthday.
We were meeting my other ‘MegaSpecial girly’ Angie closer to the event location & then everyone else in the team were meeting us there. As long as the ‘MegaSpecials’ were together I was happy!
Me & my MegaSpecials Sarah & Angie, plus Debbie (top middle) before race.Face paint & tutus on, chair decorated. Lets do this! *MegaSpecial = awesome people who have MS*
Me on the left & my MegaSpecial girls Sare & Angie
This was such a big thing for me! There was going to be thousands of people there! Since having MS I have learnt that the anxiety I have suffered, for such a long time is actually part of my MS! I’m not on my own with this, which is why it was so nice to have other ‘MSrs’ around me, we all ‘get’ each other!
Screaming with excitement!
All the team arrived and we were all ready! Wilma (my wheelchair, yes I’m one of those people! I like to name things) was all ready with the MS-UK t-shirt attached to the back. Everyone in the team had the official ‘Color Run’ t-shirts on as stated in the rules and we all had paint and glitter on our faces supplied by ‘The Color Run’
We all huddled together and said our bit, this mainly consisted of me screaming with excitement and then we made our way to the start!
Team BAM 4 MS-UK ready to ‘rock & roll’Top row: left to right: Lewis, Angie, Sharon, Deb, Adam, Giggler, Bottom row: Matthew, Sare, Me, MikeA brilliant group selfie of nearly all of us! Where’s Mike?
Remember to breath!
There were so many groups of people, like i said before thousands! My heart started to race, I’d never done anything like this before! I remembered my ‘Pilates breathing’ to help calm me and kept telling myself ‘just breath, just breath!’
Showing the amount of people queuing in front of us.The same amount if not more behind! MS anxiety was really kicking in! Bottom, left to right: Giggler (Lewis behind her) Mike, Deb
We started to move again, not for long! Stop, start, stop, start! When would we really be starting? We realised they were letting groups of people go & then waiting. Finally, we were off! 5k here we come!
And they’re off!
I started off walking with Angie and a member of the support team Sharon who I stuck to like glue, I was still very nervous even though the crowds of people had dispersed into the distance! Sare was in the wheelchair being pushed by Debbie ahead of us with 2 other members of the support team, Sarah C *AKA Giggler* & her partner Mike. 3 other members of the support team had decided to run ahead, Sare’s son Lewis & another close friend Adam decided to run the course and meet us at the end. Sharon’s son was also with us, because of his age he was only allowed to run to each kilometre marker. He then had to wait for us before he could run ahead again.
We reached the first kilometre marker! The ‘Color Run’ volunteers were so much fun, they kept running up to everyone high fiving us followed by a dousing in color! Yellow, yellow, yellow, everywhere, the smell was awful & it didn’t taste too good either but it was so much fun!
Quick photo opportunity before the fun began!Left to right: Giggler, Angie in the middle & me
There’s no going back now! Me to the right with my red ‘Deely boppers
Collecting the colors
As we made our way around the course we started to acquire more colors, Blue was the second, followed by my favourite: pink & then the final color at the 4th kilometre was orange.
Photo was taken after being blasted by the first colour, yellow!Left to right: Angie, Me, Sharon
Part of team BAM 4 MS-UK after the 2 of the joggers went ahead Back row, left to right: Mike, Giggler, Deb, Angie, Me, Sharon Bottom row: Sare taking her turn in ‘Wilma’ wheelchair
We laughed & threw paint powder all over each other & laughed some more! We shared the wheelchair as & when we needed to being pushed by only one person, Debbie, because she was in the zone! She had been training for this for weeks and wasn’t going to let anyone else take over!
Meeting Jazz
I’d had a conversation with a young girly who I knew was going to the Color Run. I met Jazz (who also has MS) through twitter, we’d spoken about how great it would be if we bumped into each other on the day as we’d been chatting online for such a long time but had never yet met! We also laughed about how it would be virtually impossible to bump into each other as there would be so many people there!
We bumped into Jazz! Top row, left to right: Angie, Deb, Giggler Bottom row, left to right: Sare, me, Jazz *Thanks to Jazz’s friend for the great photo*
Enormous amount of pride!
We realised that not long after we started we were soon overtaken by the next wave of runners/walkers and then the next and the next and the next! It wasn’t long until we noticed the ambulance behind us! You know, the ambulance that signifies the end of the race, the last ones! We’d gone from being one of the first groups to start to being the last to finish, in that moment right there I felt an enormous amount of pride!
‘My MegaSpecial girls’ One of my favourite photos from the day as it shows the ambulance behind the girls, signifying the last of the runners! Not many people would like the fact that they are last but we did because it meant we’d done it! Left to right: Angie & Sare
The last to finish
The last color was in sight! The last hill, the last marker! We were the last group to finish which could only mean one thing to the volunteers, use up all the paint powder they had left and cover the last people to cross!
Sharon definitely got me back with the last colour after I paint bombed her! I’m just glad it was powder & washed out of my hair easy!
Finish in site!
Typical of her, Deb’s tutu is tucked in her trousers! Left to right: Sare, Giggler, Angie, Matthew, Sharon, Lewis, Deb pushing me in Wilma, Adam *Photo courtesy of Jazz & team*
Hip hip hooray! We did it!
Back row: Sharon Middle row: Mike hiding behind Debs arm, Matthew, Angie, Sare, Adam Front: Giggler & me in the middle! Unfortunately Lewis isn’t in the picture as he took it!
Our own private colour party!
We did it but it didn’t finish there, we made our way to the final area where the remainder of what looked like a rave had taken place. Once we got to the ‘party zone’ we were given loads of packets of paint powder, this was basically to throw all over ourselves as a group!
We watched the small crowds of groups at the bottom of the hill by the party stage, luckily we could hear them. They started to count down & paint bombed each other with those packets we were given! Wow! At that moment, I had tears in my eyes! That might seem odd to some people but for me it was magical! All that colour, it was like a plume of rainbows!
Our turn! As a group, as a team, the runners had rejoined us. We counted down 3, 2, 1, paint powder everywhere! It wasn’t until I opened mine that I realised I had the best colour ever, pink, my favourite!
Remembering how my vision is and how i have lost contrast, to see all that colour was something that I shall always remember, and if I don’t remember because MS is also interfering with my memory then I have the photos to look through.
This was by far the best part of ‘The Color Run’ Our own private colour party!
The long walk back to the car!
We didn’t think about that did we!
What an incredible day!
Me & Deb at the finish!
With special thanks to
‘Wilma’
My ‘Wilma’ wheelchair, well & truly colored!
The ‘Avatars’
The volunteers, quite obviously the ones at the blue paint marker!
DebbieRahRah this morning “lets go to the seaside & on the way back we’ll call in and show Walter to Mom & Daddy David”
I let out a shocked “Meh?!?!?” Unfortunately that’s my anxiety getting the better of me!
11am we were in the car, 2 & half hours later we were there! The was shining on us, 29°c, a nice cool breeze and yet the sea was like a mill pond!
Windbreaks erected across the shingly beach in true British style!
As we approached the slight sloping path down to the beach, I realised just HOW many people there were down there!
Just breathe Vicky, just breathe! Its only people! I told myself! But what if people stare at me because I have a walking stick? What if I walk funny because of the sand? What if I fall? What if I get sunburnt? What if the heat effects my MS? What if what if what if!!!
Did it matter? Really? Chances were most people would be sunbathing, reading or shouting at their children! So why would they care about 1 person that just happens to have walking aid! I’m sure I wouldn’t be the first they’d seen in their life!
Walking funny??? Everyone walks funny on the beach when the sand moves beneath your feet!
If you fall over just get back up, brush yourself off and carry on… If anything, you’ll give someone a giggle, if they notice!
Sunburn? You’ve got suncream, use it!
Heat? Deal with it!
Do you see, if I’d have let the anxiety win, I wouldn’t have had such a wonderful day! I wouldn’t have found the strength to walk to the shore, I wouldn’t have paddled in the pools on the way to the sea, I wouldn’t have got a sun kissed nose or sandy toes, I wouldn’t have seen our little boys first paddle in the sea & his reaction when he first went on the sand and started to jump around like a spring lamb!
The inlaws were over the moon with their surprise visit & so happy to meet Walter who they just adore! Jaxon is still their number one boy though! Was nice to hear Debs mum say ‘Mummy Vicky’ as well!… Little does she know!
Oh yes i am! Absolutely loved Body Pump tonight with @keza_h! What an awesome instructor Kerry is! I never thought i would be able to do this class & not only can i do it but tonight i increased my weights again!
Feeling proud!
Sometimes you just gotta get down on your mat!
My head, my thoughts are in a funny place at the moment, I’m doing my best to stay with my Yoga but its so hard!
I’m having a lot of body image problems, for instance I wanted to see how I am with my downward-facing dog (Adho Mukha Shvanasana) progress, so did a video, really pleased with the left side of this picture but extremely dislike the right! (Hate is a strong word but…) And its not because I can’t straighten my legs or flatten my feet.
I know why I’ve started feeling like this again. That’s part of the battle when you don’t know why your thoughts have changed so much after doing so well.
A bump in my road, well, more than a bump, loosing part of our family has literally took me backwards on my ‘better mind journey’
I’ll trust this journey for as long as I’m on it because I have never felt so determined!
My post from earlier today showing the world of Facebook how heat effects me
——————————
I apologise in advance if you see me or talk to me today, i have my coolest clothes on therefore look like a sack, my hair is a mess, can’t be bothered with make up and I’m just generally slow!
Living life the MegaSpecial way! 