Funny man Tim Ferguson uses black humour and a big stick to fight battle with MS

Australian comedian Tim Ferguson reveals how he fights an invisible battle against MS with a joke up his sleeve in a new photographic campaign.

(L-R) Tim Ferguson, Paul McDermott and Richard Fidler of the Doug Anthony All Stars in 1994, just one year before Tim was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

WHEN comedian Tim Ferguson’s left leg suddenly stopped working, he was forced to take a break from his hectic life at the top of London’s comedy circuit and recognise the strange symptoms he had been ignoring could be more serious than he thought.

He began experiencing numbness when he was 18-years-old and later put it down to hangovers and a busy life working non-stop with the edgy, provocative and internationally successful comedy troupe, the Doug Anthony All Stars.

But one day the Glebe comic woke up and couldn’t move the whole of his left side, so he went to the doctor thinking he’d be told to change his lifestyle and get more sleep. Instead he was booked in for an MRI scan and eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

News_Image_File: His autobiography Carry A Big Stick. News_Image_File: Tim Ferguson’s portrait Spasticity by Matt Hoyle.

“It was sort of a relief,” Mr Ferguson said of his diagnosis in 1995 when he was 29-years-old. “It was nice to actually be able to say: ‘Oh, that’s what it was’.

“I had been walking around for quite some time feeling as if I had a javelin in my head from one end to the other. Turning my head, I felt like I had to be careful.

“Of course, there is the possibility that someone has thrown a javelin, when you are a comedian.”

Mr Ferguson is part of a new campaign called Seeing MS that features photographs of people with multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory disease that attacks nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord.

News_Rich_Media: SeeingMS campaign

Symptoms of the disease are often hidden, they vary greatly from person to person and can be hard to explain. They include visual loss, tingling, numbness or weakness in the limbs, loss of balance, debilitating fatigue or pain and slowness of thinking or “cognitive clouding”.

Seeing MS was started by photographic producer Lyn Petruccelli with her daughter Laura, who works at advertising agency Grey Melbourne, Limehouse Creative and Infinity Squared, both based in Sydney.

Mrs Petruccelli, who experiences random waves of extreme vertigo, was diagnosed with the disease in 2010 and wanted to educate people about its “hidden symptoms” after being taken to task by a motorist for parking in a disabled spot.

News_Image_File: Dizziness by Louis Petruccelli was inspired by Lyn Petruccelli who started the Seeing MS campaign.

She said her dizziness felt like everything was spinning and the ground was coming up towards her. It leaves her feeling nauseous on some days, bedridden on others and it can happen in seconds.

“I can’t see it coming and that makes it hard to fight,” Mrs Petruccelli said.

“We’re (now) going to have this visual diary of our disease and how we feel is there. You can see it. I can explain it. It’s fantastic!”

News_Image_File: Jamie MacFadyen’s image Hot and Cold helps to explain Dimitri Cachia’s MS symptoms. Diagnosed at 24, he experiences weakness in his legs and feels like he’s constantly walking through water.

Mr Ferguson said the campaign ‒ which shows him standing with his walking stick, surrounded by banana skins ‒ helped to explain the “many faces of MS” in a way that people could understand.

“It seemed to say the right thing,” Mr Ferguson, whose book Carry A Big Stick details his life and inspirational attitude of fighting MS with comedy, said of his portrait Spasticity.

“A comedian trying to walk when every step is slightly precarious.”

Mum-of-two Emma Giunti, of Redfern, was diagnosed with MS in 2010 and also took part in the campaign, held to coincide with World MS Day on May 28, in the photograph Blurred Vision by Toby Burrows.

News_Image_File: Toby Burrow’s photograph Blurred Vision was inspired by Emma Giunti, of Redfern.

“I think we need to educate the Australian public about MS and that a lot of MS sufferers suffer from the invisible symptoms,” she said.

“If you looked at me, you would not think I have MS. I have optic neuritis and my eyesight is affected, I have blurred vision. There are varying symptoms ‒ around 85 per cent of people with MS are not in a wheelchair.

“When I was first diagnosed, I had no idea what MS was. I had just returned from my honeymoon and my husband and I were trying to have our first child.”

Thankfully, Mrs Giunti was able to seek help from MS Australia which put her in touch with ongoing support services and other people with multiple sclerosis to help her through the “very emotional” time of being newly diagnosed.

News_Image_File: Juliet Taylor captured this image of 12-year-old MS sufferer Darcy McCann in her photograph Fatigue.

Dr John Parratt, a consultant neurologist at the Royal North Shore Hospital, said MS was an ­inflammatory disease that ­attacked nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord and could progress to degeneration of the nervous ­system.

“In terms of treatment, there are many therapeutics available now that reduce the frequency of MS attacks and therefore symptoms and reduce the chance of disease progression,” he said.

“Unfortunately as time goes by, if MS is not treated, then in many patients the condition progresses relentlessly with severe degeneration of the central nervous system, often between 10 to 25 years after diagnosis.

“The average age of diagnosis is 28-years-old but the disease can develop much earlier than that.”

News_Image_File: Numbness by Nicholas Walton-Healey was inspired by Adriana Grasso who experiences a loss of sensation in her hands making it difficult to type, cook or hold hands with her fiance.

SeeingMS also features photographs of 12-year-old Darcy McCann, from Canberra, who suffers from extreme fatigue, Dimitri Cachia, of Clovelly, who has weakness in his legs and is depicted wading through water and Stephen Papadopoulos, of Penshurst, who experiences intense burning pain in his body.

Around 23,000 Australians have MS, the causes are unknown and there is currently no cure but research into the disease is continuing.

To help fund research and support services for people with MS, you can donate or take part in Australia’s largest fundraiser, the MS Walk and Run at Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour, on June 1.

To sign up click here: For more information on the Seeing MS campaign and to view or submit a photograph, visit the website here.

 Seeing MS

• The campaign is a collection of photographs of people with MS and is held to coincide with World MS Day on May 28
• The photographs can be viewed at seeingms.com or by downloading the Seeing MS iPhone or Android app
•  The MS Walk and Fun Run is on June 1 at Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour.
• A total of 1000 Australians are newly diagnosed with MS every year and three out of four people with the disease are women
• Details: mswalk.org.au

News_Image_File: Help to raise money for MS research and support services for people living with the disease by taking part in the MS Walk and Fun Run at Darling Harbour on June 1.