MS Awareness Week 2026 – Connor shares how assumptions about MS impact everyday life

As part of MS Awareness Week (April 20 – April 26), Connor Morris, 30, from Essex reveals the cruel assumptions others have made about him and his MS condition

I initially lost the feeling in my right foot when I was 17, which made me drive like I had a lead foot in my driving lesson; flying off, then braking very sharply! This lesson was postponed and the feeling cleared up after a week or so.

Unfortunately, the same numb sensation came back in both of my feet a few months later, and the feeling spread higher up my legs each day. After a little while feeling like I was walking on stilts on ice, I decided to go for an MRI and was promptly diagnosed with MS.

I wasn’t initially too concerned about my symptoms, but I put that down to being 17 and ‘indestructible’ at the time. Upon my diagnosis, it felt like my whole world had collapsed around me, even though any symptoms had cleared up well by this point, I knew this was going to be a lifelong battle.

Life has been a rollercoaster

Since my diagnosis, life has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs. I managed to get into university after re-sitting a year at college. The year I was diagnosed was just too stressful.

I quickly realised that it was hard to ‘fit in’ with my peers, as I didn’t have the same energy or motivations as they did, ultimately leading to a suicide attempt in my second year.

I did eventually get my degree at uni, which due to worsening symptoms, I will likely never put to good use. I have however found a job as an office assistant where I am very well looked after. They cater for my extra needs; from reduced hours to working from home, they have always been very supportive.

I met my wife, Skye, six years ago, and she was never phased by the symptoms I had when we first met and has been so supportive and loving as my condition has gradually worsened.

We got married in June, two years ago, which was the happiest day of my life, and something I really couldn’t picture happening when I was back at university.

I have gone through multiple treatments and DMDs to help manage my MS and its symptoms, with varying success, but there is another form of electrical physio I’m looking forward to trying, and my family are very kindly rallying together to raise money to pay for it.

I have loss of feeling and control in my left leg, including drop foot, and my left arm and hand have similar symptoms, but less severe. I also struggle with extreme fatigue and ‘brain-fog’ every day.

‘I’m conscious of the way people look at me’

I have experienced a lot of misjudgements since being diagnosed. When I do walk in public, I’m conscious of the way people look at me as though I am ‘under the influence’ of something, at any time of day.

Before I used any walking aids, I’ve had people assume I was drunk at a bus stop at 8 o’clock in the morning. It was upsetting, as I was already feeling ‘different’ and excluded by everybody else, but also disappointing that people will automatically assume something negative about someone being different to the norm, rather than considering it is something that is out of their control.

On a side note, at this bus stop, it was interesting to notice the difference between how people acted when my MS was ‘invisible’, and when I had a walking stick. The visual cue that I was disabled shifted things from people talking about my unsteady gait and leaning on the side of the bus stop as though I was drunk, to me being offered a seat and the bus stopped in front of me every time.

I lost a lot of people I considered friends, who just stopped communicating with me after my diagnosis, as if having MS would change who I am, Thankfully, this has enabled me to realise who my true friends are.

I try to keep my chin up, and remember that I have MS, MS doesn’t have me!