One Day wishes from The Netherlands

Steyn and Gonny from the Netherlands said:
“One day I’ll fly away,
Leave my wheelchair here to stay,
What more can MS do for me,
When will MS be through with me ?”   Like the song from Randy Crawford.
 
Our wishes for World MS day are :
1.     No more steps and thresholds or difficult-to-open doors at the entrance of shops, restaurants or cafeteria’s. So I can shop by myself.

2.    No more toilets at the end of stairs in pubs and restaurants. Accessible toilets to use in restaurants and café’s or pubs, with room enough for me to manoeuvre my wheelchair, or my electric wheelchair.
Handles along the wall in toilets, so I can transfer, sit and stand up by myself.
Mirrors on the wall low enough, so I can see myself into it.

3.    No more paydesks in shops or banks that are too high for me to use, so I can pay for my groceries myself.

4.    Due by law : An international sign at the door outside, so everybody can see that establishment is accessible for handicapped persons.
No accessibility = no business-license for the owner : that would be the ultimate.

Ank, from the Netherlands age 57, access issues:

Ank in Crete on holiday

•     I have to cancel a lot of activities because of my disease; motorbike trips as a passenger with my husband,  visiting friends, going to a theatre, a holiday. It is almost impossible to plan activities, because you never know what each day brings. I love to go to Crete during the summer, because I feel the warmth feels good for my disease but every year it is becoming more difficult for me to make the trip. It makes me feel very sick for days and that gets worse by the year.

•     Work. I loved my job. I spent 7 years at university so I could do my job. Three years later I had to give it up, because of MS.

•     Support, because people don’t often see that you are suffering from MS, especially when you are not frequently using a wheelchair. When you are in a wheelchair people feel sorry for you. When you don’t make use of a wheelchair they often think and say: You don’t see anything, she must be OK. But inner pain, the feeling of being totally tired, the loss of a lot of things in life does not show on the outside of a person.

One day I hope to be free in my mind and heart. The pain and the future are so unacceptable that normal life is very difficult. The pain rules my whole life and makes that I cannot  live as I want and the pain has influenced every aspect of my life as a human being as in all my relations and in my mind and heart. One day I hope I  can sing and be free, pain is an obstruction in my and another person’s life, it is always there. I hope that the music of life can grow again in my life. I miss the spirit, the music, the happiness and the future in all things. I hope that I will and can see the small and little things that make life unforgettable, laughs, tenderness, hope, people, the sun, the wind, the sea and especially love between people.

Lisa from the Netherlands, age 22, shares her wishes:

One day I will walk normally again, without crutches and without my wheelchair for the long distances.

One day I will ride my horse again like before. One day I will take him to the beach for a long ride!

One day there will be a medicine which will cure anyone with MS.