Living with MS- Meet Heather Russell-Kay

My Invisible Disease

Living with chronic illness can be hard, but finding support and understanding makes all the difference.
"It is one of those things that when I was first diagnosed, they were like, everyone knows someone with Ms, but I knew absolutely no one. I had no idea about the condition or that it was actually diagnosed quite young in people at all."
Heather Russell-Kay is a teacher and actor diagnosed with MS in 2014 at the age of 24. She has been living with chronic illness for the past nine years and is now an entrepreneur running her own business.
Heather Russell-Kay was shocked to find out she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at the young age of 26. Despite feeling scared and alone, she pushed through with determination and motivation. She passed her teacher training and went self-employed to gain control over her workload and health. Despite the struggles she faced, Heather was lucky to have a loving partner by her side to hold her hand through it all. Though it took a toll on her mental health, she eventually gained the courage to reach out to other people and accept the help she needed. Heather now hopes to raise more awareness for not only MS, but also the mental health of those living with chronic illnesses.
In this episode, you will learn the following:
1. How to manage the challenges of being diagnosed with MS at a young age
2. How to navigate the difficulty of maintaining a full-time job with MS
3. How to process the emotional toll of living with a chronic illness invisibly.
Resources:
Heather Russell-Kay
https://dinosaursdonkeysandms.com/
https://twitter.com/dizzythedonkey
https://www.instagram.com/dizzythedonkey/

Chapter Summaries:
[00:11:11]
When you were in school to become a teacher, I think you were already preparing with some of these skills. How did that affect going back to school in the fall for your second year? I was getting over this extreme vertigo. Somehow, somehow got through it.

[00:12:36]
For me, the best thing I did was going self employed. Cutting out the commute and having to get ready can really have a huge impact. Do you do most of your tutoring online? Yes, I do now.

[00:15:48]
Jenny got into relationship about two weeks before the tingling started. She says her partner stuck by her through her worst. The couple are now engaged. Jenny says there's always that guilt of not being able to keep up with everything.

[00:19:20]
When you were diagnosed with MS, where did you seek out support? What did that look like for you as you moved through that transition of diagnosis? My mental health suffered really badly. I even found it hard just going outside because I no longer trusted my body at all.

[00:25:54]
Ms in a lot of ways is invisible. People look at you and they would assume that you're relatively healthy. The idea that on the outside we look reall

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