An Irish mother-of-two is hoping to raise enough money to travel to Russia to undergo life-changing treatment for Multiple Sclerosis.
Jennifer Hands, 41, was diagnosed with MS in June 2021 and has had her life turned upside down by the "horrific" condition.
The Milltown, Co Cavan native has gone from standing for hours on end every day at her busy hair salon to struggling to walk within a matter of months.
However, she is hopeful that treatment outside Ireland will allow her to return to a "new normal" way of life.
Jennifer initially noticed that something was awry when her left side became numb but she believes she may have been silently suffering for as long as ten years as there were red flags that she dismissed and didn't consider serious enough to get checked out.
These included dizziness and difficulty performing certain activities such as riding a bike or balancing on one leg.
"I was diagnosed in June 2021 but I had always felt off-balance for a few years and when I would go to the GP I would always have low blood pressure and also B12 problems," she said.
"I'm not one of these people who would force myself to go to a doctor, I just got on with it and thought it would be alright.
"At the time of getting diagnosed [with MS], I had complete numbness on my left-hand side but yet my determination kept me going."
It was when her clients in the salon started telling her she needed to get her symptoms checked out that Jennifer decided to go to her GP.
Once she visited her doctor, she was told she would immediately have to go to Cavan General Hospital.
"I was literally completely paralysed, I had no feeling whatsoever on my left side," Jennifer explained.
"[The GP] would put pins into me and I couldn't feel them but on my right side, I was like 'ow!'.
"I knew then it was serious."
After undergoing some tests in Cavan, she was then transferred to hospital in Drogheda by ambulance.
At this stage, doctors were "really worried" as she had no feeling in her hands or feet and was "totally lifeless".
Jennifer was then rushed to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin where she underwent an emergency MRI scan.
She had no control over her bowel movements and began to fear the worst as her mother had previously passed away with ovarian cancer.
"I was all on my own and I was scared, it was so scary," she said.
She then went for a lumbar puncture and "didn't sleep for two solid nights" after that as she found all the follow-up tests "horrendous".
When doctors came and told Jennifer she had Multiple Sclerosis, it took a while for her to register what that meant.
When she heard the word "tumours", she immediately thought it was a cancer diagnosis, but medics explained that she had lesions on her spine and neck, which were causing a lot of her confusion.
"I did know someone who had MS so then I got kind of scared and I said, 'Am I going to be left like this for the rest of my life?'," she said.
"There were no guarantees, they told me I would never be able to work ever again.
"I came home in a wheelchair but I'm such a determined person, I went to my physiotherapist in Cavan and she was absolutely amazing.
"I came in at a very bad stage of not being able to walk to being able to walk with a stick now."
The illness has had a huge impact on Jennifer's life - she has no income because she is unable to work and she can't drive anymore which poses problems for getting her two teenage daughters to where they need to be.
She has been undergoing treatment for the MS in hospital but says it is "doing nothing" which is why she hopes to travel to Russia.
A clinic in Moscow has already accepted Jennifer as a candidate for the treatment and she hopes to travel in May as they told her to get there "ASAP".
Jennifer's family and friends have launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise €70,000 for the treatment, which is called Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.
It involves taking haematopoietic stem cells from her bone marrow or blood, then a chemotherapy drug is used to "wipe out" her immune system.
The stem cells are then reintroduced into her blood, where they grow a new immune system that will hopefully no longer attack the myelin which covers her spinal cord and nerves.
With a success rate of over 95%, Jennifer is hopeful that after five weeks in the clinic, she will get some semblance of her old life back.
"I just hope and pray that this treatment will get me back to being able to get into the car and bringing my kids to wherever they would like to go," she said.
"Because they're seeing their mum who is sitting all the time, who's not herself, she's not working, she struggles every morning, it has just been horrific.
"I don't know if I'll ever be able to stand for a full day in a salon but even if I got two hours standing, just to go to work, just to be normal.
"I have no words, I worked so hard to keep everything under control and now this has just wiped me out."
Jennifer views the treatment in Russia as her "last chance" and she is moved to tears by the incredible support she has received from her friends, family and the local community since her diagnosis.
"I cannot believe it, I'm blown away [by the support]," she said.
"People know I have never looked for help in my life, I'm not one of these people, and that's why I'm so emotional."
More than €44,000 has been raised of the €70,000 goal in just four days after hundreds of people donated to the 'Jennifer's Race to Russia' fundraiser.
If you would like to donate to the GoFundMe campaign, you can do so here.
