By the time I had reached my early twenties I had achieved all the standard milestones expected of me. I had completed my GCSEs and A-Levels and had recently graduated from university. I was temporarily working at the House of Commons and enjoyed a healthy social life. I had lots of friends, a boyfriend with whom I used to enjoy wrestling and cavorting (I remember a friend we were walking with one afternoon asking us to stop ‘frolicking’). Then the tumbles began.

On one particularly memorable occasion, I was on my break at work at work and had gone to the canteen to get some lunch. I was walking across the room to a table, carrying a tray full of food and I don’t recall exactly how it happened, but I fell over with my tray full of food in the packed dining hall, with everyone watching. And what a racket it made. I was mortified.

I remember feeling hotly embarrassed as I sat up and collected the tray, its contents and the rest of my belongings off the floor. I don’t remember who I was with. Or whether anybody got up to help me (they must have). I just remember the handsome man I had spotted around the place was standing there with his friend - and saw it all.

The next time I remember falling was when I was visiting my mother's place in Yarm with my new boyfriend. She lived quite near an abandoned railway, which she used to enjoy walking along, for exercise. On the walk that day I was lagging behind and my mother (who was never the most patient of people) was getting extremely frustrated and telling me to hurry up. She was trying to lose weight and get fit and would march down that track at quite a pace. And on that particular day, I just couldn't keep up.

After a year or two of frequent stumbles and falls, I developed double vision whenever I looked up and to the right. Eventually I asked my GP what he thought it could be and he told me it could either be an Eye Migraine or Multiple Sclerosis. Eventually I was diagnosed with MS and, sixteen years later, I still feel like it’s only the beginning. I don’t know what the future holds, but I strive to make it a good one.

Over the years, I have realised that the most difficult part is truly accepting that I have MS. And that MS limits what I can do and it’s here to stay. It affects my life in more ways than I care to admit, but I am determined not to let it define me. I received some transformational coaching and was able to see that I already possess all I needed to change my life for the better.

I shook off the feelings of worthlessness that my diagnosis brought and emerged from the darkness a stronger happier person, determined to enjoy my life the way I always planned to.