“I don't hate my wheelchair; it gives me independence”

When Ciara McChrystal was in the second year of her psychology degree at Queen's University in 2015, she started to notice something wasn't right.

She had begun to experience severe mood swings and changes in behaviour, as well as intense, blinding headaches. From time to time, she also noticed that the feeling in her leg had gone, but she put that down to a trapped nerve.

Initially, she was diagnosed with mental health problems, but the headaches persisted. The doctors were stumped as to their cause and she was sent for a series of scans. Before the results of the scans had come back, Ciara was in with her GP and happened to mention the problem with her leg. She didn't think it was all that important, but it was a piece of information that caused the doctor to stiffen. “You mean to tell me that you've been having blinding headaches and you're losing feeling in your leg?”

The doctor made an urgent appointment for her to attend Altnagelvin a few days later, where a junior doctor came in and told her, 'you're having another MS relapse'.

“I was shocked,” said Ciara. “I had never even heard of MS or knew what the letters stood for. “I found out later that the doctor shouldn't have told me that because the results of my scans hadn't been confirmed; that happened a few days later when the neurologist came in and told me, 'you've got MS'.

At just 22, Ciara had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the central nervous system. It was doubtless a scary and uncertain time, but the doctors told her there were ways to manage it and that she should be able to maintain a normal life.

“I was fine for about a year,” said Ciara. “Sometimes I had to use a walking stick but it wasn't all the time, and I did self-injections three times a week that helped.

Ciara before her MS diagnosis. She has remained just as active in spite of the loss of the use of her legs.

“But gradually, my body just kinda turned on itself. I was taking bad relapses and my legs were getting weaker and weaker until eventually, they gave up.

“I was in hospital for six weeks. I used a Zimmer frame for a long time and a wheelchair to get to physio and go for plasma exchanges, but I'd had relapses before that I had come round from and at that stage, I never thought, 'this is going to be like this for the rest of my life'.”

But this time was not like before, and she gradually came to realise she would no longer be able to walk unaided; for the past four years, Ciara, now 28, has been wheelchair-bound.

Seeing their young daughter face such challenges has been a difficult thing for her parents, Charlie and Margaret, to come to terms with, but for Ciara herself, it has come with a lot of positives.

She said: “I don't hate my wheelchair. I think it gives me drive and independence and I don't see it as this negative thing at all.

“I train in it, I go to work in it (she is a student advisor and acting manager in Rutledge Training in Magherafelt), I am able to get around and do the things I want to do in it.”

Ciara has also discovered one of her great passions because of it: the sport of wheelchair basketball. Always an active person who enjoyed horse riding, kayaking and scouting (and who still does), the Ballyarnett native was introduced to the game during a stay at Musgrave Hospital in Belfast.

“I got a small taste of it and I have never looked back,” she said. “I joined up with the North West Wolves team, based here in Derry, in the Shantallow Community Centre. I never even knew they existed until the ones in Musgrave said to me about them.

“I just fell in love with it. We play in a Northern Ireland league and I was selected for the NI women's wheelchair basketball team that was to play in the qualifiers for the Commonwealth Games of 2022.

“Unfortunately, sickness in the squad meant we couldn't compete in the qualifiers. I was gutted, but I am hoping to make the NI team again and have another go at making it to the 2026 Commonwealth Games.”

Ciara McChrysal with parents, Margaret and Charlie, and brother Daniel.

And it is in the pursuit of this dream that Ciara was encouraged to reach out with a GoFundMe appeal to help her buy a bespoke sports wheelchair that will make a massive difference to her life in sport.

She explained: “New sports chairs are really expensive; around £6,500. I bought a second hand one when I was going for the 2022 qualifiers but it doesn't fit me properly and as a result, has caused me some personal injury over the last few years.

“I need a new chair for this time around. I wanted to pay for all of it myself, but I wouldn't have gotten all the money together in time and the selection process starts soon, so I thought if I paid half and was able to raise the other half, it would be amazing.

“I was very apprehensive about doing it, but my friends and family were so encouraging and said, 'just do it; try it and see what happens'.”

And what happened is that scores of well-wishers chipped in to make it £3,350 pounds, and counting, raised through GoFundMe, meaning Ciara can now begin the process of ordering her new chair.

She said: “I will have this chair for the next 10 or 15 years. It will be made to measure and that will make such a difference.

“When I see how generous people have been, it is incredibly humbling; I am so grateful to every single person who has supported me.”

Details of Ciara's fundraiser can be found online at HERE.