AN EVESHAM mum has been honoured for her inspirational blog by reaching the finals of the prestigious MS Society Awards in London.
Chelsea Williams will rub shoulders with celebrities such as Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills, Ortise Williams and BBC weatherman Alex Deakin at the ceremony on October 6.
The 25-year-old mum to Livie, five, and two-year-old Evie is among the finalists in the MS Digital Media of the Year’ category after she was nominated by best friend Erika Holt.
Chelsea has been blogging at www.msmummyoftwo.com since she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2011 while pregnant with Evie.
Her blog was designed to raise awareness of MS and show people that life goes on despite being diagnosed with a lifelong unpredictable neurological condition.
She taught herself how to use WordPress, how to self-host the blog and link her Twitter profile to maximise hits.
Since 2011, the blog has grown in popularity and has a loyal and wide following of 16,000 readers a month.
Chelsea says her proudest moment was when she wrote a poem to David Cameron as it was shared hundreds of times and was a moment when she realised many other people out there felt the same as her.
“Being nominated is a huge thing for me. I started the blog for selfish reasons, to help myself understand my MS but it grew to be something bigger that other people could relate to.” she said.
“It’s honest, raw and sometimes full of rants but that’s my personality coming through and it’s definitely something I will
continue with during my journey with this disease.”
Erika has Fibromyalgia and the pair they bonded while they were both blogging about their respective conditions.
“Meeting Chelsea changed my life. We’ve become extremely close and meet up quite a lot.” Erika said.
“She has really helped me to become more confident and inspired me with how strong she is as a person. She has the
confidence to be herself and not let things weigh her down.”
More than 100,000 people live with MS in the UK and symptoms can often begin in the 20s or 30s.
Sufferers can see their condition get steadily worse or remain unpredictable throughout their life.
Visit www.mssociety.org.uk for more information about the MS Society.
