My name is Andy McKenna. I'm a Scottish mountain bike guide and ‘This Way Up’ is a documentary about living with Multiple Sclerosis and my quest for an active path to health.

I'm not really 'stoked' on MS but I do appreciate the irony. Plus it's a pretty decent way to kick off an important conversation about an ugly disease. I have been living with MS without use of pharmaceutical MS medication since 2007 and I am proof that there’s a way of still leading a healthy, productive life. Until the longterm benefits of pharmaceuticals are proven, I'll stick to this path. To this day I still operate my mountain bike guiding business (Go-Where Scotland) with my wife Aneela and our awesome team of guides and I try to get outside into the mountains as often as I can as part of my therapy. In 2018/19 we raised nearly £70, 000 for the unsung hero charity Overcoming MS and here's a recent podcast they kindly asked me to contribute to.

MS is an ‘incurable’ degenerative and disabling neurological disease affecting the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves of almost 2.5 million people worldwide. It usually causes attacks of neurologic symptoms including vision loss, paralysis, numbness, bladder problems and walking difficulties.

It’s still a mystery why it happens but it’s caused when the body’s own immune system attacks and damages the Myelin, a complex substance that surrounds and insulates nerve fibres, and reduces the ability of the brain and spinal cord to transmit signals. There is no medical cure for MS.

But all is not lost! There’s a growing community living with MS who believe there is an alternative way of managing the disabling effects of MS. It is not a pill or an injection - it’s a set of lifestyle changes and holistic strategies that have been thoroughly researched, tried and tested. A set of changes that will help the healing power of the mind and body to work together. 

STOKED ON MS is a way of creating dialogue with people about the alternatives. Overcoming MS (OMS) is the charity established to promote a positive lifestyle programme that aims to help people with MS live long, healthy lives. OMS is committed to improving the lives of people with MS by providing the tools to enable recovery.