International LDN Awareness Week eBook - User Control Panel

At that time, late in 1981, I had noticed an article in one of the many free medicalnewspapers, which referred to the opportunity of a career in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, afleet of civilian manned merchant ships, maintained and provided by the Ministry ofDefence. These include tankers, munitions and dry stores ships, troop and logisticssupply ships and helicopter support ships. Within the merchant navy it is a rule thatany ship carrying more than 100 men was required to also carry a doctor.The article was offering the opportunity of joining this service. With the addedopportunity of travel to various locations around the world, and the security ofpermanent work, this seemed very appealing. I made my application but it was mislaidand I was enrolled too late to join the initial task force to the Falklands. A subsequentapplication was successful and I was eventually posted to serve on the tanker, RFAOlwen, which I joined in Gibraltar in 1982.Numerous deployments followed. During this period I was to experience the first signsof an increasing dispirited fatigue characteristic of MS that was to become more severelater.My final deployment was on the Olwen. Nearing the end of my term I grew aware ofcertain changes in my level of fitness. My walking was no longer as steady; I had alsobecome aware of episodes of profound fatigue in more recent months, when I seemednot to have the energy to even pack a suitcase in preparation for leaving the ship.The feelings of increasing weakness and lassitude that I had previously experienced onthe Resource became not only more severe, but more prolonged. These deep andpervasive feelings became not only physically, but also emotionally and intellectuallydraining, affecting not only my mood but also my processes of judgement and rationalthought. This overwhelming fatigue seemed to sap both the spirit and the soul, leavingan empty loneliness that, by whatever means, could not be filled.I was by this time, aware that during my time on the ship it had become necessary toabandon many of the requirements of the restricted diet that I had been previouslyfollowing. Unfortunately, on a ship, it was no longer possible to choose the menu in theway that I had been able to while ashore. I therefore found myself occasionally eatingthose foods that I had previously attempted to avoid.In this way, I was once again able to demonstrate the adverse effects of such a nonselectivediet, when my symptoms clearly began to get worse as I strayed from thedesired path of suitable foods.Thus, as my symptoms became progressively worse, I seemed to know that this was tobe my final trip with the RFA, which was also to culminate in a somewhat anxiousepisode when, during our return to the UK early in 1986, the ship's engines failedduring our transit of the Southwest Approaches several hundred miles from the tip ofCornwall.The ship was subsequently left adrift for three days while the ship's engineers workedfrantically trying to establish the necessary repairs. It was at such a time that it may berealised how dependent we were on the various ship's systems: with no power therewas no water to wash or to drink, the toilets did not flush, there was only emergencylighting to see by; and food could not be cooked.Produced by LDN Research Trust for International LDN Awareness Week 19-25 October 2009© LDN Research Trust 200924