Dominic Shadbolt is a multiple sclerosis (MS) patient advocate in the U.K. He shares his initial attitude upon learning of his MS diagnosis 1994, and the advice he has for today’s newly diagnosed.

When I was diagnosed at 24 — I don’t know about you, but when I was 24, I knew everything. I was indestructible. There were no drugs available at the time. It was just the beta interferons that were just coming onto the market.

So I sat down with my brother, and we roughed out what a good wheelchair design would be, because I just went, “Well, if I’m going to end up in a wheelchair, which is what it seemed like at the time, then I’m going to have a really cool one made of titanium with suspension.”

And, you know, that was it. But it was really — I’m sure now there’s, there’s probably terms for it, like denial. But that’s what I did was I just got on with life. ‘Cause if it was going to get me, it was going to get me, and it was going to get me when it wanted to get me. And there ain’t nothing I could do about it. So in the meantime, have life, do life.