Alastair Hignell on Life With MS

As England ended the 2007 Rugby World Cup in Paris in defeat, sports commentator Alastair Hignell breathed a sigh of relief – and not at the result.

He was bone-tired after a gruelling series of matches.

A former England rugby player himself – as well as a first-class cricketer – he knew his body well enough to know it was time to quit.

Despite his diagnosis with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1999, he had flourished in his second career as a commentator.

But now the disease had progressed so far he could no longer do the job justice.

However, far from being bitter about his fate, Alastair says he feels “blessed” to have experienced the world from such radically different perspectives.

“I was finding it increasingly difficult to build up the energy needed to do the job and not fall apart doing it,” he says.

Tipping point

“The World Cup in 2007 was a fantastic event, but the last two weeks were hard.

“I was in France, but I just spent my time either going to matches and press conferences, or lying on my back on my bed.

“That was the tipping point and then England went to South Africa that summer.

When I was diagnosed and told I had an incurable disease and one that was going to be progressive and debilitating it was a huge huge shock to the system Alastair Hignell

“I came to the conclusion that I could not give the job the justification it needed or myself.

“I was taking so much out of myself it was hard to live a good normal life outside of it.

“One of the things with MS is the incredible fatigue.

“I found I was not approaching my job as well as I wanted to, or as it deserved to be done. I was looking at things like going to a stadium not in terms of ‘Great, I have a fantastic commentary to do on a match’, but more, ‘How difficult is it going to be physically for me to get up there?'”

So Alastair took medical retirement, bowing out the same day as former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio quit playing the game – 31 May 2008.

Alastair, who played rugby for Bristol and cricket for Gloucestershire, still writes a weekly newspaper column on sport, but said that apart from that he was happy to take an armchair view.

Diagnosis shock

He now uses a mobility scooter to get around. “I can’t walk very far and I can’t do stairs. I could walk to the end of the street but beyond that I would struggle – I’d probably fall or trip,” he says.

Alastair Hignell was made a CBE this year

“I’m resigned to a scooter to get me about and do everyday things, like attending physio, which is about one mile away.

“I go once or twice a week at the moment but I just wouldn’t be able to go without the scooter.

“When I was diagnosed and told I had an incurable disease and one that was going to be progressive and debilitating it was a huge huge shock to the system.

“I have only had two experiences of people with MS; one was my cousin who had been diagnosed with it seven years before and had not actually had any other symptoms.

“And on the other hand the wife of a friend of mine had died with it.

“She had a galloping form of MS which had taken her from active to wheelchair, to bed, to bedridden and then she died from influenza because her system could not cope with the problem.

“These were the two extremes and I was rather hoping I had the first rather than the second, but was sent scurrying to the internet to discover everything I could.”

Alastair had an MRI scan, eye test and lumbar puncture before being told he had the secondary-progressive form of the disease – which gets gradually worse.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS MS is the most common neurological condition among young adults in the UK Women are almost twice as likely to develop MS as men Symptoms include a loss of sensation and balance, paralysis, pain and memory and vision problems

Before diagnosis Alastair, now 54, said his doctors had been baffled by a series of seemingly unconnected symptoms of headaches, drop foot, bladder problems, pins and needles and extreme fatigue.

He said his competitive nature had both helped and hindered his disease progression.

“The competitive nature of being a sportsman had me saying ‘I am going to take this on’, but of course that leads to frustration,” he said.

“Thinking you can beat something incurable, progressive and debilitating obviously leads to a lot of anger when you can’t beat it.

“You have to learn to go with the flow of it, to cope with it and manage it – to learn, as we say in the MS Resource Centre, ‘I have MS, but MS does not have me’.”

Treatment options

Alastair has tried a variety of treatments including the drug beta interferon, hyperbaric treatment (as used by deep-sea divers to counteract the bends), reflexology and physiotherapy.

“I set aside a Monday for treatments every week as a way of recharging my energy levels,” he said.

“I would not wish MS on anyone but I would wish the side effect – that you get exposed to people’s kindness and generosity.

“You are made aware of the love that there is in the world.

“I feel blessed to have MS, which seems a funny thing to say about a disabling progressive and incurable disease.

“But it has sent me on a journey I would never have had otherwise, and I think that it has enabled me to find out how good, loving and generous people are in general.”