“Only my good friends know, but not all of them,” Canberra student Darcy McCann told the Canberra Times over the phone.
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“I have trouble explaining what it feels like so I can’t expect other people to understand it,” said Jessica Anderson.
Mr McCann and Ms Anderson, from Canberra were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years apart, when they were 10 and 12 respectively and carry around secret symptoms that no one else can see.
They are now featured in a photographic exhibition aimed at raising awareness of MS inspired by patient Lyn Petruccelli who was chastised for parking in a disabled spot in 2010 by a passerby. Her daughter Laura, who works in advertising, was inspired to start a campaign to build understanding of the condition.
To make the artworks nine photographers were partnered with nine Australians who suffer from the disease to express the symptoms others cannot see.
Mr McCann who is now twelve said that being diagnosed was "a shock." His mother Nicole said "we didn't know that it could happen to children. He was in and out of hospital and it was a bit confusing."
Ms McCann said this was because the neurologists treating Darcy had not dealt with cases of children with MS before, and they did not know any other sufferers. They are now managing the disease with injections a few times a week,
Ms Anderson, a public servant in Canberra, whose symptoms disrupt her ability to connect thoughts and concentrate, said the photographs personalised the condition for others. Importantly for her as well, the artworks were not images where she was "portrayed as a victim."
An inflammatory disease which damages the covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, multiple sclerosis is diagnosed in about 1000 Australians every year.
World MS Day is observed this year on the 28th of May.