Top award for brave Crossgar teenager

Top award for brave Crossgar teenager

3 June 2015

FIFTEEN year-old Melissa Leavy is determined that a cure for multiple sclerosis will be found by her 35th birthday.

So focused is she on helping to secure such a cure that she has raised £7,000 for the MS Society, earning the title of Fundraiser of the Year at the Heroes of Youth Awards hosted by the Daily Mirror last week.

The Downpatrick teenager has very personal reasons for her fundraising determination. For she is one of just two children in Northern Ireland to suffer from the chronic illness.

Her shocking diagnosis came after Melissa’s parents took her to an optician after noticing a turn in her eye. Within hours she had been admitted to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children where she underwent a lumbar puncture, neurology examinations, MRI scan and steroid treatment. 

Days later, the family were told Melissa had multiple sclerosis. Although she admits she had little understanding of the condition, Melissa says she realised it was serious when she saw her mum cry. 

Immediately determined to overcome a phobia of needles, she battled through her symptoms, which included sore legs, headaches, infections, episodes of falling and extreme fatigue.

It was during that time that Melissa spearheaded her phenomenal fundraising drive, exploring all ways possible to raise money towards finding the cure she wants to see within 20 years.

When asked how she copes with her illness, Melissa shrugs her shoulders and says it is what she knows.

“MS is like second nature to me. I do not think about it because I am too busy to have time to think about it,” she said.

“It is not too bad. Most months I have had to be off school two or three times a month and I have monthly infusions and blood tests but since Christmas I have not been off because of a new treatment I am being given.

“If I get tired at school I just go to the library for half-an-hour to rest and then go back to class. Other than that I do not think about it.

“The biggest struggle was to get used to injections. I was petrified, but I am not afraid any more.

“I want to see a cure by the time I am 35 and that is why I will keep fundraising. Because I get tired I can’t do too much at one time, so often my mum has done challenges for me such as abseiling.”

Melissa said it was her mum, Theresa Leavy, who entered her into the Heroes of Youth Awards without her knowledge.

“I was nervous about getting the award but I am all about raising awareness,” she said.

“If this helps raise more money then it will help bring us closer to a cure.”

Theresa, meanwhile, is as determined as her daughter to fundraise for the MS Society with the two recently hosting a radio appeal to raise awareness about the disease.

“This isn’t just an older persons condition and it affects the family unit,” she said.

“The MS society have been brilliant support. They have provided me with counselling to deal with how this mentally effects me and they nominated Mel for Young Person of the Year at their awards in London last October. 

“The memories and experiences of winning such an award money could not buy. To see Melissa’s face when she has been called as winner then and again on this occasion helps ease the pain of the past few years.

“Kids are so much more resilient than adults.  Melissa takes everything in her stride.  She rarely complains and never assumes anything that is wrong with her is MS-related.  

“She is an inspiration and so brave. We would do anything to take MS from her but the only thing we can physically do is raise awareness and fundraise to assist with research for that cure she wants. 

 “Proud is an understatement.”