A mixtape for multiple sclerosis

A mixtape for multiple sclerosis

Wednesday, 9 October 2019

Sit down

I am currently self-employed and am working for two different organisations - a local authority and a national charity.

The fact that I am lucky enough to still able to work more than 15 years after my MS diagnosis is not lost on me - many of us can't.

I can't pretend it's easy and I can't pretend it doesn't wear me out, but at the moment it is do-able.

I am also lucky in that - to some extent - I am able to pick and choose my own hours and can swap between working in the office and working from home.

But every now and again I need to travel to London for meetings or events for the charity I work for. I've been quite a few times this year and mostly I find it an enjoyable experience.

I live in a small town and the London train leaves us at 7.30am. I generally get back home at 6.30pm. Sometimes I have to change trains between stations (I did last week, engines failed), sometimes not.

The charity I work for is situated three tube lines from the station I arrive at. It takes me a good half hour to get across London.

Last week my meeting took me a total of nine trains to get to London, across London and back from London.

It took endless up and downs of escalators, speed walking to make the meeting on time and a bit of ungainly running to get my pre-booked train back.

Not to mention concentrating and contributing in a meeting with a large number of people I'd not met before. Cognitive panic, obviously.

I find the whole experience of going to London both utterly exhausting and strangely exhilarating.

It makes me proud that I can still do it - but saddened by that fact that I have to then spend the next few days struggling with the impact.

This recent trip has also made me seriously consider getting a Transport for London 'please offer me a seat' badge for the tube because it's very rare that you get a situation like this:


:: Sit down by James



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