'My life with multiple sclerosis'

Karen Sherwood, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was diagnosed with MS in 1999, three years after her husband found out he had the condition.

Ms Sherwood's great-great grandparents were the McPhails, who arrived in Canada in the mid to late 19th Century having travelled from Scotland.

" I really feel looked after. It's really a community.

If anything happens, a weird symptom, something unusual, you wouldn't hesitate to call them up, and they would look after you.

I don't exercise as much as I should, but the MS Society is great.

What I like is the support of knowing you're really not that sick.

You have MS but you're not MS, you know.

That is really a strong theme that comes across - you're just you. You do what you do, be who you are, rest when you need to, take the drugs if you can do them, do what you need to do.

But you know, it's a bigger picture - you're not all about MS. "