A Bristol mum says she is ‘mind blown’ by the support of strangers after a sudden MS diagnosis left her requiring life-changing treatment. Samantha Brimble, 30, from Patchway, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after feeling “really tired” out of the blue last year.
The mum-of-one explained how she woke up from a nap with blurred vision in her left eye. Days later she was rushed to Southmead Hospital in an ambulance with a suspected stroke, which doctors later confirmed was MS.
Since then Samantha’s condition has got “a lot worse,” and she is desperate to travel to Mexico for HCST – an intense chemotherapy treatment for the condition. She has raised around £10,000 through fundraising but needs another £40,000 to get to Mexico and pay for the treatment.
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Samantha told BristolLive: “It was May last year, a bank holiday. I was outside with my son and all of a sudden I got really tired and I had to go to sleep. When I woke up I had blurred vision in one eye, as if there was cling film over it.
“I was in and out of hospital that week, but nobody knew what was wrong. I was told it could have been a migraine, but I wasn’t feeling pain in my head.
“By the Friday I was in an ambulance to Southmead with a suspected stoke. I had slurred speech, I couldn’t walk and I had a loss of sensation in my left arm. The next day they told me I had MS.”
Samantha said that ‘episode’ lasted around two months. She said she developed problems with her knees and feet, and struggled to walk in the mornings. In November 2021, she had another ‘episode’ and lost sensation in her arm again.
Samantha says her relationship with her mum broke down after her mum was diagnosed with MS, and she “doesn’t want the same to happen” with her son Harry. “I have a three-year-old,” she continued. “I’m as close as I ever was to him, and I want to get this treatment for him. If I didn’t have him I wouldn’t be doing this.”
(Image: Samantha Brimble)
Samantha says she is hugely grateful to her friend Becky who has “taken the reigns on the fundraising” as she continues to battle her condition. She says she feels touched by the gestures of her local community, including her local garage LCM Automotive, which has donated £300 worth of raffle prizes to the fundraiser.
“I’ve had a lot of strangers reach out to me, people I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve had people from Australia and America get in touch, a lot of the money has come from them.”
But Samantha still needs £40,000 to reach her goal. She is planning some fundraising events but is relying on the generosity of strangers, too.
“With MS it’s a progressive disease,” she said, “you never know what’s round the corner. I could wake up tomorrow and have another episode which would put me in a wheelchair.
“This transplant has an 85 percent chance of halting it. It won’t reverse the damage, but it is important I get it done as quickly as possible.” You can donate to Samantha’s fundraiser here and read more about her story on her dedicated Facebook page.
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