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Well hello and welcome back to my next show. This is the 30th show that I've done. That

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time really has flown past. Massive welcome back to you all. Thank you for joining us.

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What I will say today, there's a few little bits and pieces I want to talk about, but

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I think the first thing I've really got to do and I would like to do is give a massive

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shout out to Multiple Sclerosis News today. They ran a story on myself, on all of their

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channels, networks, website, the whole thing for their 31 days of MS, for 31 days of the

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month of March. They made a point of 31 people's stories being told and I'm absolutely honoured

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for the fact that I was one of those 31. Day 4, they ran my story and honestly I'm incredibly

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grateful to them. Incredibly grateful. The opportunity to get my story out there and

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really just sort of try to help people understand what I've got going on, what I've had going

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on and hopefully that can help others that might be going through similar things, just

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to hear that they're not on their own. It's not so much of you're going through it, you're

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on your own because you're not. Alright, we don't go through everything exactly the same

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but what we do for me is work as a team, we talk about things, we explain things to each

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other, just on the off chance that actually you kind of think, oh I've got similar to

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that, I'm going through similar to that. So MS News today, thank you, genuinely thank

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you for running my story. I'm incredibly honoured and I have noticed over the last couple of

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days we seem to have gained an awful lot of new followers. So to all of you that are new,

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welcome. It's an absolute pleasure to be talking to you and hopefully I can sort of say the

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odd bit from time to time that might help with you or might resonate with you or might

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just entertain you because again, that's something I'm here for. Yeah, I've got MS and yeah,

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I do a lot of talking about MS, I'm going to. This is based around my story and my journey

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with MS but I'm also going to try and entertain you, make you laugh and whatever else because

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let's be fair, there's a lot of things in life but actually one of the best things in

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life is fun, comedy and just trying to smile and trying to be that little bit happy in

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times when happiness isn't always obvious. But I try my best, I'm always going to try

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my best, try and show that I'm actually quite a happy person. I'm going to explain the fact

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that I've had quite a bad week, I'm going to be honest with you, in terms of memory.

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My memory's been absolutely awful this week, I've got to say it, it really hasn't been

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good at all and I have got a lot of stresses going on in my personal life. I can't go into

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too much detail at the moment but I'm going to say I'm not going to sort of hide it away

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anymore. It is work related, that's pretty much all I can say at the current time but

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when the time is right I will explain. But yeah, it's causing me a few issues, I've

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got to say it. In terms of the sort of pains and things, yeah, my legs especially, I've

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really been struggling with pains in my legs. My lower back has been pretty awful, I've

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got to say that, it really hasn't been great at all. But what I am noticing is certainly

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around the house, not going out of the house, I mean going out of the house I still need

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to use at least one stick, let's be honest, it's two, I've got to use both sticks, 95%

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of the time, just in terms of my own safety. But around the house I'm sort of finding ways

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of coping without using my stick, I mean there's walls. It's not as if I'm walking around

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comfortably or anything like that, there's walls. I'm sort of finding ways of mooching

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about the house, being out of grab hold of a wall when I'm feeling not quite so right,

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because the legs are a bit jellified, but I'm finding a way to live with it. I'm finding

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a way of, I'm going to use the term fighting back, because I want to, while I've still

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got the ability to move around under my own steam, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do

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it. I know I've used this before, I know I've said this before, I will say it again, I will

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say it again. I have got MS. MS, it doesn't have me, it doesn't have my, it's not taken

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away my passion for life, it's not taken away my want to be free, it's not taken away my

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want to be independent. And I've got to be honest, at times I try to be a little bit

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too independent, I really do. But that is what it is, that's never going to change,

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I'm happy trying to be Mr. Independent, because that's the life I want to lead. Don't get

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me wrong, I totally understand, there's probably going to be a future where independence isn't

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quite so easy. Well at this stage, it might not be quite so easy, but I'm still going

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to be independent. Today, today's Sunday, we had some family over, it was brilliant,

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I'll be honest with you, I've had a great day, genuinely, I've really enjoyed it. It's

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been great spending time with everyone, all of that sort of stuff, it's been great. But

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we needed to get the bits of shopping in for everyone to be able to have some lunch. So

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I jumped on Eleanor, to all of my new listeners, Eleanor, that's the name for my mobility scooter,

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if you know, you know, gone in 60 seconds. Yes, I guess that might be where the name

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came from. Anyway, I jumped on Eleanor, I went up to our local shop, I got the bits

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and pieces in, and I forgot to get salad. We do get salad, we do like salad. Although

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for some reason, not much of it got eaten. But yeah, I went back out to go and get the

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salad. And Lisa, she said to me, she said, take one of the kids with you, because you've

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already been out once, carried a basket around the first shop and whatever else. Me? Being

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me? No, no, no, I can do it on my own, it's not a problem. And yeah, I did do it on my

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own, that's not an issue. But wow, did I struggle. It was not easy at all, I really did struggle.

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So yeah, I'll be honest, I sort of cut my nose off to spite my face a little bit, I

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probably should have taken one of the kids with me just for a bit of moral support. Worst

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case, Lisa was happy to come with me. But I was being a little bit too independent on

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that one, I've got to say it. So that's kind of a bit of a learning curve for me to start

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thinking, yeah, okay, I do want to do stuff on my own, but actually, sometimes I've got

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to accept, I need a little bit of help. And I need to accept the help. I mean, there's

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little bits and pieces tomorrow, Monday, which as this podcast gets released, I actually

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have my next half a bag of okravis. And I have to say, after the first one, I'm really

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not that nervous. Really not that nervous at all. I'm going to be taking the laptop

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with me. What I will say is I actually went and bought a laptop the other day. Only a

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secondhand one. I didn't want to go and spend too much money, didn't want to go crazy. But

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I bought one because I am going to attempt to learn how to edit these podcasts and make

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them a bit more professional and a bit better for you all to listen to. Because you all

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take the time to listen to me chatting away. So I think it's only right I try and give

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you the best possible listening experience. So I'm going to have a go. I'm going to have

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a go. I'm going to try. It could take a bit of time. I'm not going to say when I will

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start publishing edited podcasts, because it might take me a bit of time to get used

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to it. But yeah, I'm going to take that laptop with me for my treatment. And I will, like

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I did with the first one, I'm going to blog from my treatment chair. So feel free to pop

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across to my website, because the blogs will be there tomorrow. Again, I'll give you the

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web address. It is really simple. It's Mike's MS journey.com. So pop across at some point

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tomorrow and you will see blogs from my treatment chair. There's going to be at least one I

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will maybe look to do too. We'll just see how the day goes. Because you never know.

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You never know. It might well be that actually I might get more done. But you're just going

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to have to wait and see. I will try my best. I will try my best. Because I must admit,

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I actually quite enjoy the blogging. I really do. I try and get a couple done a week. And

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I must admit, I did one the other day and it's the first one I've done for a week. Because

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as I say, I have had a lot going on, a lot in my mind. Because again, the work issue

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really is causing me a bit of a problem. But I don't want that to cause any issues for

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what I'm doing with my other bits and pieces. Because again, I quite enjoy talking to you

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all. Whether that's on this podcast, whether that's on Instagram, whether that's on TikTok,

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whether it's on YouTube. Speaking of YouTube, I was actually playing Fortnite the other

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night and I got this really good kill. Absolutely brilliant it was. And I did a little video

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for it and put it on my YouTube channel. I can't believe how many views it got. Literally

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north of 500 views for a computer game video. Unreal. Unreal. I just, I really can't believe

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that. I only play that game for a bit of fun. Blimey. It is literally just a bit of fun.

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Yeah, the views went mental. It really did. It went crazy. So yeah, there might be the

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odd little one of those that creeps its way onto the YouTube channel. You never know.

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We'll have to wait and see on that one. But if people want to see things, I will provide

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them. Not a problem. Well, I think that will pretty much do for today. I don't want to

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keep you too long. As I've said, a massive thank you to you all. Whether you're somebody

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that's been listening to me for a long time or whether you are a new listener. Thank you.

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Because again, without you all, there'd be no point me coming on here and spilling my

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guts and getting things off my brain. So I appreciate everything you're doing for me.

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And I just hope even if one of you enjoys what you're listening to, then I'm doing

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what I'm doing for the right reasons. Well, I will speak to you all again very, very soon.

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Have a good week. Bye bye.