Mission Stadiums for Multiple Sclerosis

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My MS Story by Anita Aggarwal

Up until 2009, I was living a normal life. Then in May, I started to lose feeling and balance in my body and visual sight in my eyes. A diagnosis for Multiple Sclerosis is not straight forward and you need several tests; MRI and Spinal Tap to help confirm the diagnosis.

After being admitted to the hospital on a bank holiday, I was released to go home as it was not life-threatening. 5 days later and after many appointments to the GP, I was finally admitted to the hospital. After the tests, it was confirmed I had Relapsing-Remitting MS. Your body attacks itself and damages the coating around the nerves in your brain and spine, which causes things to either not work or creates a delay between the signal and the function that your body is trying to operate.

In 2016, my world fell apart when my health deteriorated and life as I knew it had to change. This resulted in losing my career and ability to complete daily living tasks. I spent 4 months climbing out of depression literally and by September of that year, my family convinced me to enter my first ever disability climbing competition. Little did I know after my first competition that I would come away with a gold medal. This led me to be selected to the Great Britain Climbing Team to represent my country in the World Championship Para Climbing Event and also the IFSC World Cup.

I’m doing this before my condition gets worse – you never know when MS is going to get worse so this might be my only chance. I aspire to be the first person with MS to win a World Para Climbing Championship. I continue to build climbing communication, raise awareness for the sport and bring all ages/disabilities to the climbing world. I also specialize in disability coaching and want to be a coach in the future for the next generation of Para Climbers.

This is why I became an Inclusive Climbing Coach bringing climbing to all – working with all ages; my youngest is 3 years old and the oldest is 65 years old. I specialize in coaching people with conditions that include; blindness, missing limbs, ADHD, Autism, anxiety, Asperger’s, depression, mental health, learning disabilities, Cerebral Palsy, and the LGBT+ community. I work with all levels of ability from rope confidence to improving climbing.

Up until 2009, I was living a normal life. Then in May, I started to lose feeling and balance in my body and visual sight in my eyes. A diagnosis for Multiple Sclerosis is not straight forward and you need several tests; MRI and Spinal Tap to help confirm the diagnosis.

After being admitted to the hospital on a bank holiday, I was released to go home as it was not life-threatening. 5 days later and after many appointments to the GP, I was finally admitted to the hospital. After the tests, it was confirmed I had Relapsing-Remitting MS. Your body attacks itself and damages the coating around the nerves in your brain and spine, which causes things to either not work or creates a delay between the signal and the function that your body is trying to operate.

In 2016, my world fell apart when my health deteriorated and life as I knew it had to change. This resulted in losing my career and ability to complete daily living tasks. I spent 4 months climbing out of depression literally and by September of that year, my family convinced me to enter my first ever disability climbing competition. Little did I know after my first competition that I would come away with a gold medal. This led me to be selected to the Great Britain Climbing Team to represent my country in the World Championship Para Climbing Event and also the IFSC World Cup.

I’m doing this before my condition gets worse – you never know when MS is going to get worse so this might be my only chance. I aspire to be the first person with MS to win a World Para Climbing Championship. I continue to build climbing communication, raise awareness for the sport and bring all ages/disabilities to the climbing world. I also specialize in disability coaching and want to be a coach in the future for the next generation of Para Climbers.

This is why I became an Inclusive Climbing Coach bringing climbing to all – working with all ages; my youngest is 3 years old and the oldest is 65 years old. I specialize in coaching people with conditions that include; blindness, missing limbs, ADHD, Autism, anxiety, Asperger’s, depression, mental health, learning disabilities, Cerebral Palsy, and the LGBT+ community. I work with all levels of ability from rope confidence to improving climbing.

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