Multiple sclerosis (MS) patient advocate Dominic Shadbolt, of the United Kingdom, was diagnosed with MS in 1994. He shares the story about working with his doctor to get started on his first MS treatment.

As the beta interferons were coming onto the market, I was chatting with my neurologist and I said, “I want to take these. I understand there’s a drug.” And there was some sort of cost-sharing scheme in the U.K. with the drug companies.

And she looked at me and, because they’ve often got guidelines, and she said, “You know, when somebody’s telling you something and you realize that they’re trying to tell you something without actually telling you?” And she said, “If you were to come back in, say, three months’ time, and for example, you were to have problems with, oh, I don’t know … say your leg or something, then I could put you on these drugs.”

I went, “Oh, really? Oh, OK.”

And I came back in about three and a half months’ time and said, “You’ll never guess what, doctor. My leg feels really funny.” And she went, “Oh, there’s these drugs that you can try for your MS!”

So they were the only ones. There was no choice initially. That was it. So I got on it because she steered me onto it.