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Tessa Nielsen

Please help me reach my goal

Raised

€1,245

My Goal

€500

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My Progress

I'm walking 100 kms this month to leave MS behind

My Progress

100 KMS

My target

100 KMS

Support my challenge to leave MS behind!

I’m taking part in The May 50K. I will be taking on 50km throughout May and leaving my limits behind to raise funds for life-changing research into multiple sclerosis, better access to treatments and to support people living with MS in Ireland!

There are over 9,000 people in Ireland living with multiple sclerosis. At the MS International Federation and MS Ireland, it’s our mission to leave MS where it belongs, behind us.

You can now support this work in Ireland and around the world, so I’ve accepted The May 50K challenge to change lives.

Please make a donation to support my challenge.

Thank you so much!

My Updates

Let the challenge begin!

02.04.2023 
Wow, I can only say how amazed and grateful and touched I am that so many people have donated already, and you have all helped me smash my target of €500!! In fact we have almost raised €700 and it's only day one! Amazing! Huge thanks to everyone supporting me and donating, sharing and offering to walk some routes with me through the month!
Yesterday evening I started the challenge off with a nice 3.85km walk in the woods with my three dogs Dougal, Tank and Koga. We were cheered on by evening birdsong, beautiful sunshine and even had two deer cross our path just meters in front of us. Luckily I had the dogs under close control or else they may have gone chasing after the deer and that would have added significant time to my walk 😅
I'm drinking a coffee now looking at the sunshine through the window and thinking about where I will walk this evening after work 🤔
I'm also thinking about how grateful I am that my MS symptoms aren't debilitating, at least not at the moment, so I am able to do this challenge. It would be much harder with severe fatigue or a numb leg or even with dodgy vision from optic neuritis. I could feel my old optic neuritis flaring ever so slightly towards the end of my walk yesterday, which isn't unusual. Old relapses can be weak spots and in heat or tiredness or sickness you can experience pseudo relapses or minute flare ups of previous symptoms. 
It seems the website is having issues with some of the tracker app syncing so my first 3.85km have not loaded up yet. 
One benefit of this walking is that I slept incredibly well last night, which is great because good sleep is vital for me in the management of my symptoms! This challenge will have more than just fundraising benefits, I'm looking forward to the health benefits too!

My Story

I was diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) when I was about 23. The diagnosis came just a few years after losing my mum to cancer and to say I was overwhelmed is putting it mildly. It felt life-changing. It felt lonely. It felt frightening. MS by its nature is an uncertain disease, affecting each and every one of those who have it differently. For me, I noticed something wrong when I woke up one day to see I had lost vision in one eye. The vision returned after a few months only for me to have the same experience in the other eye. This terrified me. Again it came back almost completely and another few months later I got pins and needles in my fingers and toes which over a couple of weeks became full numbness of the left hand side of my body from the neck down. After trips to the hospital and tests including a lumbar puncture, the diagnosis was RRMS. 
I have since been on a journey of managing my condition with medication, lifestyle changes and learning to cope mentally with uncertainty and realising I can't be rushing about exhausting myself all the time anymore. Life is for living though and it prompted me to do the things I wanted to now, not wait.
So I bought a horse. I changed jobs as many times as it took to find something that suited. I experienced great things and horrible things on the way but my diagnosis gave me the determination to achieve what I can and don't delay! 
So here I am now today, living in Ireland because one of the things I wanted to do was experience hunting in Ireland, so I did that. In the process I met my partner Mark and almost two years ago I made the leap to quit my job sell my house and move over to County Clare to live my life. 
Mark has been a huge support and continues to encourage me to achieve what I want to every day. He helps me manage my life and I no longer feel lonely or frightened. I've made amazing friends on the way who also help and support me in so many ways. I am one of the lucky ones. So I'm doing this challenge while I can because with MS we never quite know what it will throw at us next!

Thank you to my Sponsors

€31.13

Karen Coughlan

Well done Tessa! Fair play to you, raising funds for.a great charity 😀

€20.80

Laura Mulvihill

€15.60

Dawn Avery

€25.94

Holly Mellors

Walking 100km whilst preggo! You get it gurl!

€52

David Jones

Well done Tessa. Super stuff out of you 👍

€20.80

Brian Mulvihill

Well done Tessa

€31.20

Julie-anne Prenderville

Well done Tessa! You’re going brilliant, best of luck on the home straight 👏😃

€26

Ciara Mulvihill

Best of Luck Tessa Ciara & Martin x

€20.75

Michelle Talty

Tessa well done on setting this challenge to help raise funds for M.S I hope you've enjoyed the journey and it's super that you've already achieved your fund raising goal and much more so good on you!!! Enjoy the rest of the kms and hopefully I'll join up with you for a walk before May is out x x

€50

Paul Brett

€104

Peadar Mcmahon

Best wishes. My mother lived with MS for many years. You'll reach all your goals I'm sure. Cheers.

€25

Pat Stafford

€60

John, Ger, David

Donations from John Wixted €20 Ger Power €20 David Corbett €20

€15.60

Kendall

Smash it xx

€50

Lucy Cusack

€5

Cathal Macmahon

€104

Derrick Burke

Best of luck with your walk, hopefully we will meet up at some show during the summer

€10.40

Fenella Fox!!?

Good Luck Tessa. Look after yourself too xx

€10.40

Charlie Johnson

Fab Tess good luck xx

€20.80

Donna & Seamus Mcinerney

The very best of luck

€52

Alan Bermingham

Well done Tessa. Keep up the good work.

€26

Sara Lee

€20.75

Edel & Ronan Woods

Good luck Tessa 💪

€156

Mark Mulvihill

€10.38

Siobhan Garrett Cooney

Great cause..good luck Tessa

€20.80

Cathal Costello

€20.80

Lisa

€26

Denise Mulvihill

Well done Tessa 👏

€10.40

G

Smash it 💪🏻

€5

Justine

Good Luck Tessa x

€104

Jan

Good luck. I know you can do it! XXX

€10.40

Sylvia

100km ! Go girl 🎉🎉

€15.60

Catherine Fairburn

€20.80

Shane Mulvihill

Fair play 👍

€20.80

Ailbhe Mcdermott

€26

Anonymous

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