MS sufferer aiming to help others

12:34pm Friday 16th May 2008

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Since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a former Watford chef has channelled his energy into helping others who live with the condition.

David Mantle discovered he had MS five years ago. In the last few years, his life has changed, not only for himself, but also for his family.

For 12 years he worked as a chef in Moor Park Golf Club and led a relatively normal life, until, after feeling unwell, he went to Watford General for a check-up.

Several tests later, doctors discovered he had MS.

David, 45, said: "The worst symptom I have is short-term memory loss. I can be saying something one minute and forget it the next, it is so frustrating.

"The other is balance and stability. That is why I had to stop working as a chef; it is not a good thing to be off-balance when you are working with knives."

David, of Churchfields Road, explained that when he was told about his condition he came to terms with it and decided to help others.

He said: "When I found out, one of the first things I did was to get in touch with the Watford MS Society.

"Family can sympathise but people with MS are the ones who really understand what you are going through, although everyone has very different symptoms.

"Some people find it hard to come to terms with having MS, they are in denial, there is no cure, so I work with them and try to help them understand the condition, especially the newly-diagnosed. They need a lot of support."

David is now a welfare officer visiting sufferers to help them deal with the condition.

He said: "The other day I saw a woman in Watford, who sits in the same chair every day from the moment the carer gets her up, to the moment the carer puts her to bed.

"I listened to what she was saying. Some people are in complete denial and I just lend an understanding ear."

David said that last year he was one of the 900 people who was put on a newly-developed drug, called Tysrabi.

The decision to put the drug on the market was later reversed, a decision that David was not happy with along with hundreds of other people.

David said: "I wrote to Claire Ward and we lobbied Parliament, and got the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) decision to withdraw the availability of the drug reversed. This was the first time patients had ever reversed a NICE decision."

He explained that aside from all the medication he takes, his wife, Kim, and step-daughter Amy, 20, help him live with MS.

David added: "There are so many times when I have left something on the stove because I forget about it, and Kim has to step in.

"People look at me and say how well I look and I just want to say "why don't you live in my body for a day and see how it feels?"

"I love helping people with MS, because I understand what they are going through and I want to make their lives better."