My name is Tanya Roots. I was born in Westminster in London where I spent my first years, moved to Wimbledon Common and spent my later years in Surrey until I met my husband and moved to Kent. I am married to Malcolm, and we have two lovely children Dominic and Natalie along with four lovely grandchildren, three boys and one girl. Malcolm is my best friend, rock, carer, we have been together for 35 years, supporting each other in all we do. He is a very loving, caring individual never moans when helping me no matter what it is.

I worked at Marks and Spencer for 25 years, starting my career as a sales assistant, progressed to a supervisor in my final years worked within training and HR/Recruitment. In September 2004 I started working in the educations sector as a Pastoral Manager in secondary education. I still work within the education sector today at Canterbury College, working part-time as I am unable to work full-time due to my MS.

I have been part of fundraising teams at Primary/Secondary schools. Working on PTA’s from being a chair along with fundraising for the schools. Back in 2009/10 I worked with 20 secondary school pupils to go to Kenya for a month something I and they would never forget, what an experience!

In 2008 I started to experience issues with my lower back and was sent to see a chronic pain consultant that proceeded with me having injections into my spine. These worked the first time but failed after that. Had surgery on my right knee to loosen my cruciate ligament, at this point you would think I had shares in the MRI scanner at K&C! Went to see an orthopaedic consultant back in 2013 as my walking was getting worse along with pain in my right knee, confirming I had Osteoarthritis in my right knee. After seeing this registrar most of the time, my final appointment was with him. Knowing my family history, he sent me to ambulatory care where I went on to have a brain scan in the December of 2017. Waited to March 2018 to get the results and was told it was more than likely to be MS but to confirm this I would need a lumbar puncture. OCD

 bands confirmed this and was given the official diagnosis in the June that year. This was no surprise to us, as I had suffered from Optic neuritis in my late thirties, only to be told there was nothing wrong with me.

How did I know about the Centre? We had seen the signs albeit they were small, always said that they could help my mum, but she would not go. There is a family history of MS in my family on my mother’s side with her being diagnosed when I was nineteen. Her brother who passed away in his late to early forties and her younger sister having MS as well. As this is not hereditary could be a gene but who knows.

My GP recommended the Centre to me, said about oxygen therapy might help my back issues. I have been using the KMSTC for the past seven years starting with hydrotherapy, but this sadly was not for me. I started using oxygen therapy with a group of six lovely ladies some of whom I still see today. For the last four years I have been having oxygen outside due to suffering with bad hay fever.

I personally find no difference being outside to being inside other than not going down at a depth and my ears not hurting, it still gives me the benefits I need. I also have physio once a week along with reflexology, this all helps with my balance, lower and upper body strength. I would highly recommend trying any of these therapies, they have helped me and could help you, unless you try you will never know.

For the past four years I have taken part in a trial drug M-STATS 2 for Secondary Progressive MS. The trial has now come to an end, it’s a double blinded trail so not even the neurologist knows which one I’m taking, either the placebo or the real thing, Simvastatin, at 80mg a night. Everyone is due to be unblinded in August 24, with preliminary results by September then published end of this year or early 2025. Hopefully they will publish another newsletter soon as newsletters have been positive throughout the trial. Although my GP has said he would prescribe this, we have been advised to wait until unblinding.

I have also been part of working with Christ Church University in developing an evaluation framework for therapies for MS. This involved members, staff, therapists, volunteers at KMSTC as well as staff from CCCU. I have also taken part in the seated dance in conjunction with UCA based in Epsom Surrey. This involves wearing the OURA Ring for a twelve-week period that looks at stress, sleep, activity, heart rate, resilience, readiness and HRV balance as well as taking part in a weekly session of dance on a Thursday evening that unfortunately has come to an end.

The Centre is a lovely warm and welcoming place. That was the impression I got when I was first shown around by Karen Middlemiss.

Once starting to attend on my own I felt a little intimidated, however after attending my therapy there was space to sit, so I took this up and others started to chat, asking if I had been diagnosed long. We shared experiences along with talking to Martin discussing Manchester United who supports them. I did say during the discussion that they were overpaid for kicking a bit of leather around a pitch. This led to some banter regarding bringing cake in, which I did the following week.

Those that attend and come in from outside always say what a warm and friendly environment that we have.