Making sure I exercise – Jon’s story

Jon Dean has always been a fan of exercise and sport. When he received his multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis, he thought he could no longer do the things he loved. Here’s his story…

Exercise, they say it’s good for you. Throw MS into the mix and it can feel like an impossible task at times. I was always a keen footballer in my teens, I wasn’t particularly good but I loved to play and worked hard to get better. As a goalkeeper, I loved making saves. MS has made my hands constantly numb and one of the worse things for a goalkeeper is to lose their grip. So despite a few attempts to play since I was diagnosed 11 years ago, the gloves and boots will have to remain hung up.

My other fitness passions were going to the gym and running. I had to give up my gym membership 11 years ago as we needed the money due to moving home and our first child was on the way. After years of going to the gym six to seven times a week, I was no longer exercising and my neurologist believes that, and the stress of moving triggered my MS diagnosis. I don’t regret that decision as it could’ve happened regardless and being a parent is the greatest accomplishment in my life.

But ‘use it or lose it’ has often resonated with me so when things improved financially, I returned to the gym. It was tough. Over a year off, I’d lost so much strength and the added symptom of fatigue made even a 30 minute workout near impossible.

I persisted. I’m glad I did as I’m a fan of playing the long game, my patience is pretty good and eventually I started to feel fitter. Fitness improving with exercise is obvious I know but MS fatigue is something worse than just feeling out of shape so when I started to notice my fatigue had lessened, my morale was in a really good place.

Fast forward to 2016 and whilst I was watching the London Marathon like I do every year, I had always dreamt of taking part but wrote off my chances due to my MS. The commentator then said “if you’re ever sitting there watching and thinking you want to take part but can’t, just apply and see what happens” so that’s what did. One year later I fulfilled a lifelong dream and thankfully the cameras didn’t catch my ugly crying face when I crossed the finish line! I’m so glad I pushed myself.

Four years later I’m still running two to three times a week and still going to the gym five to six times a week. I’ve got RRMS and I feel lucky that I can still do most of the things I did before my diagnosis as one day, things might worsen and I have to look for a different form of exercise. I truly believe finding an exercise that you enjoy can help you mentally as well as physically and my MS is in a good place as a result of that.

I’ll keep going, keep on running and keep making sure I exercise.