Devizes mum with MS tackles gruelling 5-hour CrossFit fundraiser
Torri Ivers, a 33-year-old mother of one from Market Lavington near Devizes has completed five hours of CrossFit workouts, every hour on the hour, to raise money for MS-UK, a charity close to her heart.
Fitness lover Torri truly found her tribe when she began competing in CrossFit four years ago, but since her MS diagnosis she’s had to stop. “I suffered bad fatigue, and my balance was completely off,” she explains. I really struggled with going up stairs, and my legs would just go.” After a year of going back and forth to the doctor, and being given several mis-diagnoses, including a possible brain tumour, she was told she has MS in October last year.
The condition has taken its toll on all aspects of Torri’s life. A chef by trade, she’s seen her knife skills greatly affected, and she has to do shorter days now due to being unable to stand for long periods. “I’m used to living with chronic pain because I also have fibromyalgia,” she says. “But MS has taken things to another level. I can’t run anymore, my balance is gone, and I don’t trust my hands to do what I need them to. Even driving and walking have become difficult.”.
But where MS has affected her the most is with her mental health. “It’s not knowing how I’m going to be, day to day, that really gets to me,” she says. “It’s hard to make plans, and I really hate letting people down.”
MS is a very unpredictable disease, caused by the immune system attacking myelin, the protective coating around nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms can range from mobility issues, bladder and bowel dysfunction, cognitive problems and extreme fatigue to vision issues and depression and anxiety. Relapsing-remitting MS is the most common type, where people can live sometimes for years without symptoms – this is known as being in remission – only to be hit by a relapse and the possibility of lasting disability. “That’s been the hardest thing – not knowing how I’m going to be in the future. I have a ten-year-old boy, Jack, who I need to be here for.”
So far, Torri has raised more than £3,000 for MS-UK. Her fundraising page is: gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-an-incredible-charity