The MS Trust has launched a new awareness pack to help teachers and pupils raise awareness of MS in their schools and dispel some common myths and misunderstandings around the condition. MS Trust supporter Jenna Chudasama teaches at a secondary school in Leicester and recently used the pack to deliver an assembly to students about her own MS experience. “I hope that I inspired others to live their life to the full, no matter what challenges they are faced with,” Jenna tells us.
I was grateful to be given the chance to deliver assemblies at Sir Jonathan North College, the school that I teach at, to explain what it is like to live with an invisible condition.
It was a daunting experience at first as I did not know how my students would react. And, to be honest, I remember questioning my decision when, despite showing a small group of students an MRI scan and explaining how lesions work, someone still said that I looked fine and healthy. However, I was eventually able to help my students understand a little more about the condition by simplifying the terminology, using a lot of my personal experience and the experience of people in the public eye, such as the athlete Kadeena Cox. Interestingly, some of my older students came to tell me that they know someone in their family or a family friend that also lives with the condition and I hope that I was able to offer additional support to them.
I strongly believe that it’s important to raise awareness of invisible conditions, such as MS, in schools as students may have parents or relatives that live with something similar and it can allow them to access student-friendly information to support what they already know.
I wish I could confidently say that every student in my school understands the complexities of MS, but I am sure a few still struggle to understand that MS can affect people in so many different ways. Having said that, I do believe that students have a greater understanding that illnesses can be invisible. I also hope that they have been encouraged to open up about illnesses in general, similar to how their English teacher has, to remove the stigma so often attached to being “different”.
I strongly believe that it’s important to raise awareness of invisible conditions, such as MS, in schools as students may have parents or relatives that live with something similar and it can allow them to access student-friendly information to support what they already know. Some of our students may also be diagnosed with MS and so I wanted to be a positive example for them to remember: I live with MS, but my life is my own. I have no regrets about opening up to my school and I hope that I have inspired others to live their life to the full, no matter what challenges they are faced with.
