MS Trust Invites Youth Touched by Disease to Join as ‘MSTV Reporters’

The MS Trust welcomes adolescents with a connection to multiple sclerosis (MS) to join as reporters for its YouTube channel, the U.K. charity announced.

Since its April 2018 launch, MSTV has featured young people with MS or those close to them sharing their experiences and first-hand knowledge through the interviews and short films it produces to raise awareness and help youngsters understand the disease better.

Topics discussed include disease symptoms and their management, who might get MS, teens talking of their feelings about being diagnosed and life with the disease, or simply giving advice on how to talk to friends about MS.

In a March 2020 video, for instance, a woman named Sam talks about the “things I know now that I wish I’d known then,” from how to connect with others also diagnosed as teenagers to understanding that not every day will “always be hard.”

There are many different ways to get involved with this project. In particular, however, the MS Trust is looking for adolescents affected personally by MS to join its team of MSTV Young Reporters — those, ages 11 to 17, with either a family member or a friend with MS, or who have been diagnosed themselves.

MS reporters are asked to share their MS experiences and stories, which might help others in a similar situation. Patients can also share how they felt when they were diagnosed, what advice they might offer to others with the disease or a parent with MS, or explain some of MS’s lesser known symptoms.

“Would you like to help create videos that are tailored for you? … Would you like to be behind or in front of the camera? What about your journalistic skills?,” said Calum, an MSTV Young Reporter and the son of an MS patient, in a video announcing the channel’s launch. “If any of these opportunities are of interest and your parents are happy for you to be involved, get in touch with MS Trust.”

Those interested in joining its reporting team need to upload a video, no more than a few minutes long and a maximum of 50 MB, explaining why they want to participate in the project, the MS Trust stated. They can also leave suggestions for video topics they think would be of interest.

Its announcement also shared videos and a transcript featuring Eden, an MSTV reporter diagnosed with MS in 2015 at age 14. She has been open about her disease, and in videos as an 18-year-old, Eden talks about the steps she went through in being diagnosed, including keeping a symptom diary to share with a neurologist.

In a later December 2019 video, Eden updates viewers with her life as a university student, and mentions New Year’s resolutions that include avoiding stress while holding tight to her “dreams and ambitions.”

Transcripts of videos available on “MSTV: A YouTube channel for young people affected by MS” can be found here.