A FLINTSHIRE woman has shared her story of living with multiple sclerosis as a charity which has helped her for decades receives lifeline funding to survive the coronavirus crisis.

Alison Proctor was only in her 30s when she started suffering from pins and needles, double vision and a loss of sensation in her feet.

She was sent to an optician but was eventually delivered the bombshell diagnosis in 1994 that she had multiple sclerosis, which affects your brain and spinal cord.

The following year she visited the Neuro Therapy Centre in Saltney for the first time and says it changed her life.

The centre has been helping people with conditions including MS, Parkinson’s, MND and ME for 35 years.

The charity has to generate £525,000 a year to cover its costs and had a series of major fundraising events lined up to mark its 35th anniversary.

However all that came to a grinding halt when COVID-19 forced them to close their centre and end their face-to-face sessions.

Alison, now aged 62 and living in Holywell, said: “I started by having 10 sessions in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. In the last five or six years I have been going every week for yoga, pilates, gym and physiotherapy.

“The Neuro Therapy Centre has really helped slow down the progression of my condition. I can’t walk very far now so rely on my wheelchair or scooter.”

Alison is one of the one million people that have already been helped thanks to the Steve Morgan Foundation’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund since it was launched in March 2020.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the charity had to stop its face-to-face contact and was awarded £28,000 by the Steve Morgan Foundation to help them offer a virtual service.

“The Neuro Therapy Centre is an absolute lifesaver and I’ve appreciated that even more during the lockdown,” said the mother-of-two.

“I haven’t been out for nine or 10 weeks so the virtual service has made a real difference to me. I’m really appreciative of the Steve Morgan Foundation for helping out the Neuro Therapy Centre so they’ve been able to offer the virtual service.”

Philanthropist and businessman Steve Morgan announced in March he would be giving up to £1m a week to charities in Merseyside, North Wales and Cheshire faced with a cashflow crisis as a result of COVID-19.

In the first eight weeks the COVID-19 Emergency Fund has made more than 400 awards to frontline charities – including the Neuro Therapy Centre – helping over one million people in the process.