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arning to live with
NV resident Faye Swartz takes healthy approach

THE WORD survivor has

taken on new meaning.

By A.P. McCredie
News Reporter

In the very recent past, people
who lived with a physical or
mental disability were treated as
outcasts from society, shu! away
in institutions where their pro-
gnosis for any kind of growth was
stunted by ignorance.

Today, those once shuffled off
to the shadows are now directing
their life-affirming beams on
many facets of ‘tnormal"’ society,
teaching the more fortunate a
lesson in life. ,

The light coming off
Swartz is blinding.

She was diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis (M.S.) at the age of 25,
when she was living life ‘with a
young immortal attitude.”’

In the 10 years since then, the
35-year-old North Vancouver
resident has overcome prejudice
and doubt to. arrive at a point
similar to the one she aspired to
before becoming ill.

Working in a health food store
by day, and living after hours as
“the classic junk food junkie,”
Swartz was admitted to hospital a
decade ago after experiencing
some dizzyness and periodic
numbness in parts of her body.

Twenty-four hours later, the
immortal attitude had been
replaced with horrific fear.

“As the days progressed, none

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for your style of living

44 When a person is diagnosed —

branded really — with a disease,

every part of life changes. 99

of the doctors would tell me what
was wronp, only that they
suspected a virus on my spine,”
Swartz recalls.

Following her stay at the hos-
pital, debilitating symptoms left
Swartz hunched over with aching
joints for the next six months as
doctors puzzied over a diagnosis.

M.S., a disease that affects the
central nervous system, is difficult
to diagnose because of its varying
symptoms. The disease usually
appears in adults between the ages
of 20 and 40.

Apart from dealing with her
ailment, Swartz found herself in a
welfare line after her employer let
her go because she could not
work.

“When a person is diagnosed —
branded, really ~ with a disease,
every part of life changes,’’ she
said. ‘“‘The average person’s
_ perceptions are so out of whack.
The attitude is, if you can’t sce it,
it’s not there.’

The first to admit that prior to
her diagnosis she was one of the

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drivers who would see a young
person slowly crossing the street
and think, ‘Hurry up, [’ve got
places to go,’ Swartz found
herself in the role of that pedestri-
an feeling the biting glare of
drivers.

After finally finding out she had
M.S. — reading her chart in an
elevator full of strangers —
Swartz was told she was a victim,

“The first thing | did when I
found out | had M.S. was ask a
nurse what I can do to get bet-
ter,’ Swartz recalls, her anger still
apparent) over the decade-old
event. “She said, ‘Nothing. lr will
gel worse as time goes by.’ 7"

Today — for now, the disease
quietly lurking in her body —
Swartz works long hours in a ca-
reer that demands daily doses of
aggressive, high-energy action for
survival, let alone success.

As Western Canada sales man-
ager for Nu-Life. Nutrional pro-
ducts, Swartz travels extensively.

See Mee: page 56

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" NEWS photo Torry Peters
FAY SWARTZ has spent almost a third of her. life with multiple
sclerosis, turning perception and prejudice on their heads in the
process. The North Vancouver resident will be at Capers in West
Vancouver tomorrow and Friday to answer peopie’s questions
about nutrition and coping with an illness.

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