Sudden decline in eyesight led to MS diagnosis 

Diane O'Leary was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her early 30s. With two young children at the time, she put her early symptoms down to her busy lifestyle 

Diane O'Leary with her husband Donnach and sons Jack, right, and Paudie, front. 

When Diane O’Leary woke one Friday morning in May 2013 to discover she was losing sight in one eye, she thought she hadn’t properly wiped away her eye make-up.

But, with her sight deteriorating through the morning, the Killarney-based mother, then in her early 30s, visited her GP.

“She couldn’t see anything wrong but sent me to the eye clinic in CUH that same day. I didn’t come home for a week – they did a lumbar puncture and MRI and I was very quickly diagnosed with MS.”

Looking back, Diane, now 40, says she had already experienced other symptoms – tingling in hands and neck and fatigue. But with a six-month-old and a three-year-old, she had a lot going on and ignored those early signs. 

“I really mind myself now. I have to. If anything happened to me, where would they be?” says Diane, whose boys – Jack and Paudie – are aged 11 and nine respectively.

Naturally, her diagnosis came as a shock, but particularly to her husband, Donnach, and her parents. “For me, it was a bit easier in that I could feel my body was OK. I needed a couple of doses of steroids for my sight and it started to return.”

Diane has relapsing-remitting MS – characterised by flare-ups of disease with periods of recovery in between. “For the first two years, I had weekly muscular injections. I had terrible side effects. I’d take it on a Wednesday and then have 24-hour flu – it took two days out of my week every week, so I said ‘enough’.”

Now on a once-a-day tablet, Diane feels very good. She cycles, runs half-marathons and loves weight-lifting. She has also started her own business as a driving instructor. “I get blurred vision every now and again if I’m busy. My body tells me when I need to slow down.”

Diane is one of 9,000 people living with MS in Ireland, the community that the MS Readathon seeks to support. Now in its 34th year, the readathon is Ireland’s biggest sponsored reading initiative and one of the country’s oldest fundraisers.

Traditionally, the campaign has been popular among schoolchildren, but this year MS Ireland is encouraging ‘grown up’ readers to participate and get their offices, clubs and families to rediscover their love of reading. Funds generated are used for vital services to help people living with MS in local communities.

In Killarney, Diane’s family will be reading. “Jack’s obsessed with David Walliams and Paudie loves being read to.”

• MS Readathon runs until the end of November – see: www.msreadathon.ie

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

MS (‘many scars’) is usually diagnosed between age 20-40 and is the most common debilitating neurological condition affecting young adults in Ireland.

Three times more women than men are diagnosed – there is no known cause or cure. MS impacts the body’s motor, sensory and cognitive functioning.

MS Readathon is MS Ireland’s biggest fundraising campaign – the charity can’t keep services running without it.

MS Ireland hopes to replicate 2020’s successful virtual campaign where almost 10,000 readers and over 300 schools participated.