A West Cumbrian mum says being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis was like receiving “a death sentence”.

Brogan Johnston was left shocked and devastated when MRI scans found that she had a form of MS called Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis.

MS has no cure and is a lifelong condition that affects the nerves, spinal cord, and brain. This happens when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks a healthy part of the body – in this case, it damages and destroys the fatty substance that coats and protects the nerve fibres called the Myelin Sheath.

When the Myelin Sheath is being damaged by the faulty immune system this is where a relapse occurs, basically meaning anything from loss of vision, loss of mobility, loss of balance, loss of sensation and many, many more devastating outcomes. Once the Myelin Sheath has been damaged so many times that the body cannot repair itself, it then becomes a permanent disabling disease.

“A couple of months ago one of my eyes went blurry randomly in the middle of the day. My vision is usually perfect,” said Brogan, 26, who lives with husband Scott and five-year-old daughter Adalyn in Workington.

“I booked the opticians but I couldn’t get in for a week. I went to my GP and he referred me to the eye clinic and I saw them a couple of days later.

“They couldn’t see anything but said it could be something behind the eye such as optic neuritis.”

Optic neuritis

Optic neuritis occurs when swelling damages the optic nerve. It can be a early sign of MS but can also be a sign of other conditions and infections.

After the first MRI scan, a second one was ordered.

“There were five days between so we thought they’ve obviously seen something. The GP rang me on the Monday and said I had MS.

“We didn’t expect it at all. We were lucky to pick it up. A lot of people get a blurry eye and then it goes back to normal.”

Brogan said the family were knocked for six by the diagnosis.

“We started researching because we didn’t know anything. The first week was horrific, we were crying every single day,” she said.

“The second we woke up we were crying. We have a five-year-old as well and we didn’t want her knowing anything.”

The diagnosis knocked the family for six.

“It literally felt like a death sentence, even though it wasn’t,” continued Brogan.

“It felt like someone had put a timer on my quality of life. I suddenly thought I might not be able to do the same things with my daughter. I didn’t want her to see what other patients have to go through.

“The next day we were crying all day, we couldn’t get our heads around the fact it wasn’t a dream or a nightmare, that it is actually real, that it is happening to us. You would never expect it.”

After being left shaken by the diagnosis, they then turned their attentions to researching treatments. The couple found Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT), an intense four-part treatment.

It consists of extracting stem cells from the patient’s blood, before chemotherapy wipes out the immune system.

The stem cells are then treated and stored before being introduced into the blood. If successful, the treatment can remove symptoms of the disease.

The treatment is available on the NHS, but not for patients in Brogan’s condition.

They have now booked the treatment at Clinica Ruiz in Mexico on August 30 and are raising £55,000 for the trip. After just 24 hours, they had raised more than £25,000.

The clinic claims that the success of the treatment is between 85 and 95 per cent.

“I thought we would get a few hundred quid and then we would have to push it to get more but it has gone the opposite way,” continued Brogan.

“I would like to say, from the bottom of my heart, a huge thank you. We are so thankful. The response is so overwhelming. Me and my partner have shed tears because we are so touched by everybody’s generosity. Even people we don’t know have been donating big sums of money.”

Brogan’s partner Scott, 30, said: “It’s been absolutely abysmal. In the first week I was not even getting six hours sleep in seven days.

“For the first three to four days we were literally crying ourselves to sleep getting up and then thinking, is this actually happening. I’m looking at Brogan and the first thing she is doing is checking her hands and legs are still working.

“I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”