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About Me

I’ve been living with progressive Multiple Sclerosis for over 20 years now. Diagnosed a few months after my wedding to Carol I’m still happily married with 2 grown up daughters.
Having exhausted 99% of treatment options over the years, I now self-manage my MS. I live with constant chronic fatigue and memory problems and have lost the sight in one eye. I lost the use of the left side of my body in 2001 and have been using an electric wheelchair since then.
Life isn’t easy, everything I do is difficult and exhausting but I do what I can, when I can and I am a great believer in self-improvement and positive thinking. Progressive MS has made me who I am and I lead a more enjoyable and rewarding life than many of you wasters and lowlifes out there.
(You know who you are!)
I have learnt to “live with” my MS rather than “suffer from it” .

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Achievements since being diagnosed with MS (so far!)
are as follows;

    Walking up Mount Vesuvius on crutches Jet-Powerboating in New Zealand Bungee Jumping 300ft over the River Thames Tandem Freefall Parachuting from 10,000ft Abseiling Church Langley Water-Tower Harlow Regularly Microliting as a passenger over Essex/Kent Taking my wife and kids on a month-long trip around the world HTML Web design Gaining a distinction in Open University Maths Qualifying as an Access Auditor Completing the Expert Patient Programme – I was invited to train as a tutor but didn’t take up the offer because of funding issues Motivational Speaking on living with progressive MS I’m producing a collection of MS cartoons. The actual drawings are created by Hen the Pen, a good friend of mine and talented Graphic Illustrator. The ideas are mine and express the frustrations of daily life with MS in my wheelchair. I send Hen my ideas and between the two of us the Cartoons are produced. Check out some of Hen and Paul’s MS-Cartoons by clicking here
    MS CARTOONS and Oh yeah, check out my vids too I’ve recently started writing short stories about my MS – See above Blogs Raising over £2,000 for MS Charites Survived bringing up two stroppy (I mean beautiful) daughters (just!) Oh and I’ve become a better person because of my MS I taught myself to play Blues Harmonica (cheers Tim) Joining a band for 6 years, doing some session playing and jamming with others I raised £10,000 to buy my last electric wheelchair (with lots of help from friends) Recently started planning for the fundraising towards the £10,000 needed in 2010 for my replacement wheelchair

Which brings me to the exciting news that I recently got together with 4 mates for a few beers resulting in the formation of ......
Wheelchair Willy and the Whiprounds
a kick-arse blues band. The aim is to raise some money towards the £10,000 needed to replace my worn-out wheelchair.
I have written a song called "Wheelchair Willy Mojo", click on the music player if you want to hear it. Or better still click below to see Hen the Pen's brilliantly edited video of the song. Shot on location in my home town Witham in August 2008.

The band has recently recorded some songs and the new webpage is up and running. We are now concentrating on rehearsing for a few gigs later on this year.
Check us out www.myspace.com/wheelchairwillyandthewhiprounds
or click on the Wheelchair Willy amd the Whiprounds logo in my friends below
Tis very fecking exciting!

My Blog

DAVE THE CHICKEN

We decided to get some chickens, both as pets for the kids but also for the free eggs.  Our friend Steve "the builder" lent us an incubator and gave us half a dozen eggs from the chickens in his ...
Posted by on Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:58:00 GMT

THE PARKINSON SHOW

2005, I'm in the Lecture Hall, Broomfield Hospital at an "MS and Parkinsons Disease Awareness Day".  I am here to give a 20 minute talk on Multiple Sclerosis from a patient prospective, earning a...
Posted by on Wed, 05 Dec 2007 03:01:00 GMT

START HERE

Over the years of meeting people and discussing my MS and life experiences it has often been suggested that I should jot down these experiences to share with others.  So I thought that perhaps a ...
Posted by on Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:11:00 GMT

WITHAM RAILWAY STATION

I'm standing at the ticket counter of the railway station, balancing between two crutches.  I'm struggling to remain upright, leaning heavily on the counter trying to reason with a faceless woman...
Posted by on Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:08:00 GMT

THE BISCUIT

1985, I had been married a little over a year and Multiple Sclerosis was continuing its aggressive invasion of my body.  The diagnosis, treatment and management of MS were at that time still in t...
Posted by on Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:29:00 GMT

A PACT WITH THE DEVIL

Late 1986, it had been a year or so since my diagnosis of progressive MS and I was just about feeling confident enough to take the recently diagnosed L-plates off my back.  Life was manageable an...
Posted by on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:19:00 GMT