December 13, 2024 • 17 mins
Dr. Vanessa Tyler discusses the effects of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and how Black women statistically are at a higher risk of getting this chronic autoimmune disorder. The discussion includes Black women living with M.S. and those who are caretakers of M.S. survivors. Guests are Multiple Sclerosis Advocate Marti Hines and Sophia Williams, producers of the documentary "All In My Head".
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It hit her like a bomb.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I was on vacation with my family in Martha's Vineyard
and went to exercise and came back to shower. I
felt a sharp pain down my left side and then
I went completely paralyzed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Marty Hines, a healthy Black woman, and now she couldn't
move what was happening. After emergency care and urgent tests
in the summer of twenty eighteen, came the answer that
now shadows her life.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I am living with MS.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I got diagnosed in August of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
MS multiple sclerosis, a disease that causes a breakdown of
the protective covering of nerves. Black women have a forty
seven percent higher risk of getting MS, according to a
study by managed care company Kaiser Permanente.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
And I noticed when I kind of decided to acknowledge
and accept that I had this.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Disease, was looking for resources and.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Support, and I just wasn't seeing anyone that, you know,
looked like myself.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
It was all middle aged white women.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Not just middle aged white women anymore Black women. And
the growing impact of MS now on Black.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Land and now as a brown person, you just feel
so invisible.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And where we're from. Brothers, and sisters.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I welcome you to this joyful and.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Day and we celebrate freedom.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
Where we are I know someone heard something and where
we're going.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
We the people means all the people. The Black Information
Network presents Blackland with your host Vanessa Tyler.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And so it was a very traumatic, you know, entry
into the world that is a mess because I had
never been in the hospital before. I had never been sick,
you know, outside of like the flu. So I had
a lot of shock and denial with my diagnosis because
I felt like I had been fine.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
She was not fine. In fact, once doctors frantically ran
test why this healthy black woman was suddenly paralyzed, they
discovered what would be a disease for life, and.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It turned out I had nineteen lesions on my brain
and four on my spinal cord at that time.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I wound up.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Needing brain surgery in the winter of twenty twenty as
a result of a lesion that was sitting on a
particular nerve in my brain, causing trasureminal neurologia. And so
I started to just share my story on social media
and gained a following of people just kind of like
(02:51):
watching my journey and with meeting other women of color.
There's just so many stories and there's so much strength
and so much joy that I've seen over the past
six years that I really wanted to document it even more,
and as a filmmaker. The documentary All in My Head
is kind of how it was birthed.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
All in My Head Black Women Living with MS a
documentary produced by Marty Haines and Sophia Williams.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
So we just started shooting about a month ago, and
we're following the stories of five women Black women living
with MS so far, but it feels like as we
keep going, we're sort of learning about new potential characters
and subjects here and there. But it's been interesting just
to hear everybody's individual stories but also kind of the
(03:42):
through lines through people's experiences and people attempting to build
community and also not feel alone within this. But my
personal experience, you know, my father has MS, so I've been,
you know, in the sort of caretaker journey for a
long time. So it's been great to build some sense
(04:04):
of community and also just hear that we're not the
only family sort of feeling that these types of things,
but for.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
Some reason, black women have kind of not been in
the conversation for such a long time.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Yeah, I feel like within popular media, I think we
see a lot of middle aged white actresses that have
come forward, we're mentioned to the public that they have
the disease. But yeah, it's definitely. That's one thing we
hope with this documentary, just the fact that there are
other stories that haven't necessarily been on the kind of
(04:39):
frontline in the news media for MS and yet black
people deserve to be centered in this conversation because yes,
we're like living with it and we have family members
living with it. But yeah, it definitely. I think that's
one reason why it took my dad so long to
get diagnosed, because it was like the last thing they
(05:01):
assumed that he had.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
For black women, diagnosis often comes slow, attribute it to
systemic racism. The documentary All in My Head will point
that out in detail. The frightening symptoms like weakness, fatigue,
trouble walking, even vision changes. If there was an upside
for Marty Hines is because of her sudden scary paralysis,
(05:24):
her diagnosis came quick.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I think, you know, as traumatic as it was, I
think it was a little bit of a blessing because
I had such.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Such a crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Attack and flare up an episode that it really forced
all of the doctors to work aggressively to figure out
what was wrong with me, because if I was having
a stroke, there was something that critically.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Would need to be done.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
If I was, you know, having something else going on
in my body, they had to get to the bottom
of it because I was paralyzed. So I didn't have,
you know, that gas lighting that I think a lot
of us experience as black women in the medical field.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Because it was so visible that something was wrong with me.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
So I actually got diagnosed within a matter of hours,
which is not the case you know, for so many How.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
Was your life changed since the diagnosis and what is
your prognosis?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So my life has changed, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I always try to find, you know, spots of joy
and try to come from a place of gratitude.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
It has been a really hard and long road. I
wound up.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Needing brain surgery in the winter of twenty twenty as
a result of alesion that was sitting on a particular
nerve in my brain, causing trigeminal neurologia, and so there
was a long road of recovery from that.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
In the height of COVID on top of.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It, and it's something that I carry a lot of
grief with me. I think that it's just like any
type of grief, it's it's endless, it's ongoing.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
In terms of what my healthy or former life was.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I say often that I've forgotten what it feels like
to not be in pain, and that's a really a
hard reality to face and to live with and to
try to thrive thrive through. But I also have so
(07:41):
much that's happened that has made me more intentional. My
relationships are so much more rich and more filled with
you know again, intention and love, and so there's a
lot of beautiful things that have come out of it
as well.
Speaker 6 (08:02):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
What about the prognosis Before you hear her answer, know
that black women are often diagnosed later, have more severe symptoms,
faster disease progression, and as Marty can attest, affects to
the spinal cord requiring the use of a cane or wheelchair.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
My prognosis is not great. I think that the aggressiveness
in the way which I, you know, became diagnosed my
MS is I say it's similar to my personality, very aggressive.
I believe that by around my fifty five. I'm forty
(08:42):
one right now, so within the next ten to fifteen years,
the prognosis is that I will lose my ability to
walk as well as my ability to speak. That is
not something that you know I'm claiming, but I certainly
hold space for it, and it's made me be that
(09:04):
much more intentional with everything that I do now in
this time, like working on this documentary.
Speaker 6 (09:10):
After the incident in twenty eighteen, when you were paralyzed immediately.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Then you did gain back mobility and did that come back?
Speaker 5 (09:21):
It did.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I was in what we call just an active flare,
and so the lesions were just very inflamed and the
nerve that they were sitting on in my C spine,
my C one spine, were causing that lack of mobility
in that paralysis. So after several days in the hospital
(09:43):
with some heavy steroids to bring that inflammation down, I
was able to get feeling again. I'm still permanently weakened
from that flare on that side of my body, but
I'm so grateful that I am mobile.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
And she is making the most of that mobility.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I just completed a Disney ten k last weekend and
so I always again, I just lead with gratitude always
God as good.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
As God has proven that all the time. But even
prayer is not bringing down the high cost of these drugs.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I'm grateful to live in metropolitan cities where there are
ms clinics, you know, at the major hospitals. Though my
neurologists specializes in multiple sclerosis. I was fortunate enough to
be diagnosed in Boston, which at Brigamann Women's which is
(10:40):
the leading.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Hospital for neurology in all of the country.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So I was really fortunate to be in a space
where I could have this care team that could be
so focused and so knowledgeable. But the expense and the
cost is something that I think is just criminal. I
am on a particular disease modifying therapy that is one
(11:07):
hundred and fifty five thousand dollars per infusion, and even
with insurance and Copaid grants, I still have an out
of pocket of several thousand dollars in order to receive
the medicine that I need to be able to keep my.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Disease at bay.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Just keeping the disease at bay is not cheap.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
My out of pocket specifically is fifteen thousand dollars and
that's just for my treatment that I get twice a year.
That's not including prescription medicines that I take daily, MRIs
CT scans, that's all an additional marty.
Speaker 6 (11:49):
Do you know whether there are any efforts for its cure,
anything going on scientifically, or any medical breakthroughs.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So I actually sit on the board for the Southern
California Board of Trustees with the National MS Society, and
I also work as a district activist leader lobbying for
disability rights here in the US, and there's a lot
of really groundbreaking research and discoveries that have been happening.
(12:19):
I say often that I believe that we will find
a cure for MS in my lifetime. I think you
just have to be careful with that because what does
a cure mean? Will our existing damage be able to
be reversed?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Is it stopping people from ever getting MS? You know?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I think there's still a lot of layers when you
say cure when it comes to this disease in terms
of what exactly that will be.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
But it's really hopeful. There are so many more medications available.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I think there's up to just under thirty different disease
modifying drugs that you can take. We're just ten years
ago there was only seven. So it's a really hopeful
time to be living with this disease because I do
think that relief is coming and I do believe a
(13:15):
cure is coming as well.
Speaker 6 (13:16):
And Marty talk more about the documentary. How vital is
it that we see it and how can we help
our stories?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Black women's stories I think are just so rich and
there's so much that can be taken from listening to
our stories, whether you're living with a chronic illness or
supporting someone that is. Our ability to thrive and find
(13:46):
joy in the darkest of times is something that I
just think is so awe inspiring and uplifting.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
We just got gun shooting in Atlanta of our subjects.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We're headed to Australia later this month to meet with another,
you know, phenomenal black woman and so just all of
the financial donations are appreciated.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
Wow, So you found a black woman in Australia with MS.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
She is in Australia. Her name is Azure and she's
a Black American. But she is living in Australia with
her wife, Emma. And you will not be able to
look away from the screen. She takes up all of
your attention, so we're excited to spend some time with
her later this month.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
All in my Head Black women and their journey with MS.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Final writer on the track.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
It is an offending champion in the women C.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Four five five, I don't meet a time trial.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Kadeina Cox of Great Britain one of the women whose
journey is an inspiration. Double Sport Paralympic gold winner Kadina Cox.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
She's got one left to go.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
And she is still leading. She's on fire. Those burning
flaming shoes are doing the job.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
Katina Cox on the back straight. Now I got to
bring it home.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Yeah, she's extending her lead. With quarter of a lack
to go, the gold medal will go to.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Kina Cox.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Well done, the gold medal.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Kadina Cox was diagnosed with MS in twenty fourteen. As
she explains in this interview with the Multiple Sclerosis Trust,
this black woman is not letting MS stop her from
going for the gold.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
The diagonist has definitely changed the way that I think
about things and kind of my outlook. I think now
more about kind of living each stairs it comes, and
taking every opportunity that's in front of you. You don't
know when things are going to change, you don't know
when your life going to an ending, you don't know
what's going to come as a challenge. So if you've
got an opportunity, I think it's take it while it's
there because you might not ever have the opportunity to.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Do it again.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
So my main symptoms are I get a lot of
muscles bathoms, so mainly through my right arm, and then
I get them in my right leg, and then when
I'm quite fatigued, to get them in my both legs
and may the arm. And that's kind of time where
I spend time in my wheelchair.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Again, it's the inevitable progression these black women face, and
it is their stories all in my head will tell.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
We just started sort of looking into subjects that are
in their late twenties, but for the most part, I
feel like it's across thirties and forties. So but as
we know, like some people are diagnosed in their twenties
or one of our subjects is diagnosed at twenty five,
so it could happen at any stage.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Their producers have started a GoFundMe to get this project completed.
Go to help share the stories of black women living
with MS to help.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
There's so many people that living in this world that
you just don't know what they're going through, whether it's
an invisible illness or just challenges in their own life.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
So we're just always trying.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
To lead with grace and we're hoping that others will
do the same, especially during these times.
Speaker 6 (17:02):
Sophia Williams Marty Hines the documentary All in My Head
Black Women in MS. Thank you both.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I'm Vanessa Tyler. Please like and subscribe to Blackland. Let
me know what you think on Instagram at Vanessa Tyler one,
and remember next Friday, a new episode of Blackland
It hit her like a bomb.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I was on vacation with my family in Martha's Vineyard
and went to exercise and came back to shower. I
felt a sharp pain down my left side and then
I went completely paralyzed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Marty Hines, a healthy Black woman, and now she couldn't
move what was happening. After emergency care and urgent tests
in the summer of twenty eighteen, came the answer that
now shadows her life.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I am living with MS.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I got diagnosed in August of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
MS multiple sclerosis, a disease that causes a breakdown of
the protective covering of nerves. Black women have a forty
seven percent higher risk of getting MS, according to a
study by managed care company Kaiser Permanente.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
And I noticed when I kind of decided to acknowledge
and accept that I had this.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Disease, was looking for resources and.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Support, and I just wasn't seeing anyone that, you know,
looked like myself.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
It was all middle aged white women.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Not just middle aged white women anymore Black women. And
the growing impact of MS now on Black.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Land and now as a brown person, you just feel
so invisible.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And where we're from. Brothers, and sisters.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I welcome you to this joyful and.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Day and we celebrate freedom.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
Where we are I know someone heard something and where
we're going.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
We the people means all the people. The Black Information
Network presents Blackland with your host Vanessa Tyler.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And so it was a very traumatic, you know, entry
into the world that is a mess because I had
never been in the hospital before. I had never been sick,
you know, outside of like the flu. So I had
a lot of shock and denial with my diagnosis because
I felt like I had been fine.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
She was not fine. In fact, once doctors frantically ran
test why this healthy black woman was suddenly paralyzed, they
discovered what would be a disease for life, and.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It turned out I had nineteen lesions on my brain
and four on my spinal cord at that time.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I wound up.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Needing brain surgery in the winter of twenty twenty as
a result of a lesion that was sitting on a
particular nerve in my brain, causing trasureminal neurologia. And so
I started to just share my story on social media
and gained a following of people just kind of like
(02:51):
watching my journey and with meeting other women of color.
There's just so many stories and there's so much strength
and so much joy that I've seen over the past
six years that I really wanted to document it even more,
and as a filmmaker. The documentary All in My Head
is kind of how it was birthed.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
All in My Head Black Women Living with MS a
documentary produced by Marty Haines and Sophia Williams.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
So we just started shooting about a month ago, and
we're following the stories of five women Black women living
with MS so far, but it feels like as we
keep going, we're sort of learning about new potential characters
and subjects here and there. But it's been interesting just
to hear everybody's individual stories but also kind of the
(03:42):
through lines through people's experiences and people attempting to build
community and also not feel alone within this. But my
personal experience, you know, my father has MS, so I've been,
you know, in the sort of caretaker journey for a
long time. So it's been great to build some sense
(04:04):
of community and also just hear that we're not the
only family sort of feeling that these types of things,
but for.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
Some reason, black women have kind of not been in
the conversation for such a long time.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Yeah, I feel like within popular media, I think we
see a lot of middle aged white actresses that have
come forward, we're mentioned to the public that they have
the disease. But yeah, it's definitely. That's one thing we
hope with this documentary, just the fact that there are
other stories that haven't necessarily been on the kind of
(04:39):
frontline in the news media for MS and yet black
people deserve to be centered in this conversation because yes,
we're like living with it and we have family members
living with it. But yeah, it definitely. I think that's
one reason why it took my dad so long to
get diagnosed, because it was like the last thing they
(05:01):
assumed that he had.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
For black women, diagnosis often comes slow, attribute it to
systemic racism. The documentary All in My Head will point
that out in detail. The frightening symptoms like weakness, fatigue,
trouble walking, even vision changes. If there was an upside
for Marty Hines is because of her sudden scary paralysis,
(05:24):
her diagnosis came quick.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I think, you know, as traumatic as it was, I
think it was a little bit of a blessing because
I had such.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Such a crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Attack and flare up an episode that it really forced
all of the doctors to work aggressively to figure out
what was wrong with me, because if I was having
a stroke, there was something that critically.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Would need to be done.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
If I was, you know, having something else going on
in my body, they had to get to the bottom
of it because I was paralyzed. So I didn't have,
you know, that gas lighting that I think a lot
of us experience as black women in the medical field.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Because it was so visible that something was wrong with me.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
So I actually got diagnosed within a matter of hours,
which is not the case you know, for so many How.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
Was your life changed since the diagnosis and what is
your prognosis?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So my life has changed, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I always try to find, you know, spots of joy
and try to come from a place of gratitude.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
It has been a really hard and long road. I
wound up.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Needing brain surgery in the winter of twenty twenty as
a result of alesion that was sitting on a particular
nerve in my brain, causing trigeminal neurologia, and so there
was a long road of recovery from that.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
In the height of COVID on top of.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It, and it's something that I carry a lot of
grief with me. I think that it's just like any
type of grief, it's it's endless, it's ongoing.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
In terms of what my healthy or former life was.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I say often that I've forgotten what it feels like
to not be in pain, and that's a really a
hard reality to face and to live with and to
try to thrive thrive through. But I also have so
(07:41):
much that's happened that has made me more intentional. My
relationships are so much more rich and more filled with
you know again, intention and love, and so there's a
lot of beautiful things that have come out of it
as well.
Speaker 6 (08:02):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
What about the prognosis Before you hear her answer, know
that black women are often diagnosed later, have more severe symptoms,
faster disease progression, and as Marty can attest, affects to
the spinal cord requiring the use of a cane or wheelchair.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
My prognosis is not great. I think that the aggressiveness
in the way which I, you know, became diagnosed my
MS is I say it's similar to my personality, very aggressive.
I believe that by around my fifty five. I'm forty
(08:42):
one right now, so within the next ten to fifteen years,
the prognosis is that I will lose my ability to
walk as well as my ability to speak. That is
not something that you know I'm claiming, but I certainly
hold space for it, and it's made me be that
(09:04):
much more intentional with everything that I do now in
this time, like working on this documentary.
Speaker 6 (09:10):
After the incident in twenty eighteen, when you were paralyzed immediately.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Then you did gain back mobility and did that come back?
Speaker 5 (09:21):
It did.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I was in what we call just an active flare,
and so the lesions were just very inflamed and the
nerve that they were sitting on in my C spine,
my C one spine, were causing that lack of mobility
in that paralysis. So after several days in the hospital
(09:43):
with some heavy steroids to bring that inflammation down, I
was able to get feeling again. I'm still permanently weakened
from that flare on that side of my body, but
I'm so grateful that I am mobile.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
And she is making the most of that mobility.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I just completed a Disney ten k last weekend and
so I always again, I just lead with gratitude always
God as good.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
As God has proven that all the time. But even
prayer is not bringing down the high cost of these drugs.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I'm grateful to live in metropolitan cities where there are
ms clinics, you know, at the major hospitals. Though my
neurologists specializes in multiple sclerosis. I was fortunate enough to
be diagnosed in Boston, which at Brigamann Women's which is
(10:40):
the leading.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Hospital for neurology in all of the country.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So I was really fortunate to be in a space
where I could have this care team that could be
so focused and so knowledgeable. But the expense and the
cost is something that I think is just criminal. I
am on a particular disease modifying therapy that is one
(11:07):
hundred and fifty five thousand dollars per infusion, and even
with insurance and Copaid grants, I still have an out
of pocket of several thousand dollars in order to receive
the medicine that I need to be able to keep my.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Disease at bay.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Just keeping the disease at bay is not cheap.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
My out of pocket specifically is fifteen thousand dollars and
that's just for my treatment that I get twice a year.
That's not including prescription medicines that I take daily, MRIs
CT scans, that's all an additional marty.
Speaker 6 (11:49):
Do you know whether there are any efforts for its cure,
anything going on scientifically, or any medical breakthroughs.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So I actually sit on the board for the Southern
California Board of Trustees with the National MS Society, and
I also work as a district activist leader lobbying for
disability rights here in the US, and there's a lot
of really groundbreaking research and discoveries that have been happening.
(12:19):
I say often that I believe that we will find
a cure for MS in my lifetime. I think you
just have to be careful with that because what does
a cure mean? Will our existing damage be able to
be reversed?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Is it stopping people from ever getting MS? You know?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I think there's still a lot of layers when you
say cure when it comes to this disease in terms
of what exactly that will be.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
But it's really hopeful. There are so many more medications available.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I think there's up to just under thirty different disease
modifying drugs that you can take. We're just ten years
ago there was only seven. So it's a really hopeful
time to be living with this disease because I do
think that relief is coming and I do believe a
(13:15):
cure is coming as well.
Speaker 6 (13:16):
And Marty talk more about the documentary. How vital is
it that we see it and how can we help
our stories?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Black women's stories I think are just so rich and
there's so much that can be taken from listening to
our stories, whether you're living with a chronic illness or
supporting someone that is. Our ability to thrive and find
(13:46):
joy in the darkest of times is something that I
just think is so awe inspiring and uplifting.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
We just got gun shooting in Atlanta of our subjects.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We're headed to Australia later this month to meet with another,
you know, phenomenal black woman and so just all of
the financial donations are appreciated.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
Wow, So you found a black woman in Australia with MS.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
She is in Australia. Her name is Azure and she's
a Black American. But she is living in Australia with
her wife, Emma. And you will not be able to
look away from the screen. She takes up all of
your attention, so we're excited to spend some time with
her later this month.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
All in my Head Black women and their journey with MS.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Final writer on the track.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
It is an offending champion in the women C.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Four five five, I don't meet a time trial.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Kadeina Cox of Great Britain one of the women whose
journey is an inspiration. Double Sport Paralympic gold winner Kadina Cox.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
She's got one left to go.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
And she is still leading. She's on fire. Those burning
flaming shoes are doing the job.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
Katina Cox on the back straight. Now I got to
bring it home.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Yeah, she's extending her lead. With quarter of a lack
to go, the gold medal will go to.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Kina Cox.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Well done, the gold medal.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Kadina Cox was diagnosed with MS in twenty fourteen. As
she explains in this interview with the Multiple Sclerosis Trust,
this black woman is not letting MS stop her from
going for the gold.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
The diagonist has definitely changed the way that I think
about things and kind of my outlook. I think now
more about kind of living each stairs it comes, and
taking every opportunity that's in front of you. You don't
know when things are going to change, you don't know
when your life going to an ending, you don't know
what's going to come as a challenge. So if you've
got an opportunity, I think it's take it while it's
there because you might not ever have the opportunity to.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Do it again.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
So my main symptoms are I get a lot of
muscles bathoms, so mainly through my right arm, and then
I get them in my right leg, and then when
I'm quite fatigued, to get them in my both legs
and may the arm. And that's kind of time where
I spend time in my wheelchair.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Again, it's the inevitable progression these black women face, and
it is their stories all in my head will tell.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
We just started sort of looking into subjects that are
in their late twenties, but for the most part, I
feel like it's across thirties and forties. So but as
we know, like some people are diagnosed in their twenties
or one of our subjects is diagnosed at twenty five,
so it could happen at any stage.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Their producers have started a GoFundMe to get this project completed.
Go to help share the stories of black women living
with MS to help.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
There's so many people that living in this world that
you just don't know what they're going through, whether it's
an invisible illness or just challenges in their own life.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
So we're just always trying.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
To lead with grace and we're hoping that others will
do the same, especially during these times.
Speaker 6 (17:02):
Sophia Williams Marty Hines the documentary All in My Head
Black Women in MS. Thank you both.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I'm Vanessa Tyler. Please like and subscribe to Blackland. Let
me know what you think on Instagram at Vanessa Tyler one,
and remember next Friday, a new episode of Blackland
Host
Vanessa Tyler
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