I’m Cath, a married mother of three from Warwick. I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2000 and after 19 years of living within a spiral of declining health I’m asking for your help to get the treatment I hope will halt my MS.

I think of my MS as if my nerves are like a network of electrical wires with the protective covering worn away at random points. What is MS?

Every day can be different – but what is consistent is that I am in chronic pain, confused, dizzy, exhausted and suffering from weakness down my left side. Then there’s the symptoms that come and go like losing my balance and coordination, cognitive fatigue, urinary issues, numbness, pins & needles, problems with speech and swallowing, difficulty walking and the temporary loss of my sight.

My exhaustion feels like walking through treacle and I have to lie down for several hours every day. Even then, I spend my evenings on the sofa, exhausted, while my husband cooks, cleans and minds the children after he returns from work. Every time I leave the house I need to plan the outing around rests. As a mother it means often watching my children grow up rather than actively participating in their lives.

For years I’ve taken strong drugs but they only slow down my relapses, they don’t stop my spiral of declining health. Now I’m asking for your help to raise money for a course of HSCT – the only known medical treatment that has halted the progression of MS for the majority of patients who have gone through it. It’s not available as a standard treatment on the NHS; either you have to be part of a medical study or be one of the most extreme people suffering from MS.

HSCT is a chemotherapy-based treatment. Basically it removes your immune system and reboots it using stem cells harvested from your own blood or bone marrow.

It is offered at in Pueblo, Mexico and I’m asking for your help to fund my HSCT treatment at Clinica Ruiz, a carer for 24 hours day for six weeks, insurance and some post-treatment care.

It isn’t risk-free and chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation is a harsh treatment to endure. But almost 700 people have been treated in Mexico including BBC News correspondent Caroline Wyatt who talks about her treatment here Caroline Wyatt's HSCT story

If you’ve read this far – thank-you! I just want to finish by assuring you that I’m not going to sit passively while my life gets smaller and the walls close in on me as my health continues to decline. Not only me but my family too are fighting the ‘MonSter’ – my husband Bobby is running a sponsored half-marathon in March to and all the family is preparing a series of fund-raising events.

But any help you can provide will be incredible – I am profoundly grateful for any donation that will let me say one day “I used to have MS…,”

For more information about HSCT in Mexico click here