SHE’S often mistaken for a drunk - even though she’s stone cold sober. For Lynne Ballard has Multiple Sclerosis which sometimes affects her speech.

“The nerves in my lips, tongue and facial muscles may not always function very well - that is why you may have to wait for my words to come into my mouth,” says Lynne who works as a part-time receptionist in Poole. “But people are so quick to judge.”

The 43-year-old mum says she was almost reduced to tears at work recently when a customer started shouting abuse at her.

“I felt so humiliated but I stood up for myself by calmly walking away from the rude obnoxious man and showing him my MS card, which says: ‘I am not drunk or brain damaged. I have Multiple Sclerosis and have difficulty with my speech. Please be patient whilst I speak. Thank you.’ He soon shut up and apologised!”

Lynne, who lives with her husband at Lytchett Matravers, was diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting MS in 2008.

“I didn’t know anything about MS. I just thought if you have it you end up in a wheelchair – I didn’t know it affects the brain and spinal chord.

“MS affects everyone in different ways,” she explains.

“No two cases are ever the same - symptoms can be mild or extreme. But it isn’t fatal and it’s not contagious.”

Lynne is just coming out of remission after being unwell for several months, which is why she wanted to speak out now in support of this month’s MS Awareness campaign.

“If I spoke to you a few months ago you wouldn’t be able to understand me, because my speech was so slurred.

“I also had trouble swallowing and it was agony to walk. I have had all the different symptoms - it is so unpredictable and it scares me to death at the time but I know I am going to come out of it.”

Lynne says she first became unwell in the summer of 2007 with extreme exhaustion and blackouts.

“I woke up in hospital with double vision and I had numbing and tingling on the left side of my face – I thought I was having a stroke.

“An MRI scan came back as inconclusive. After six weeks or so it wore off and I was normal again, but at times I felt this strange extreme exhaustion for no apparent reason.

“Nine months later I woke up in the middle of the night with a dead arm – I hung it out of the bed thinking I had pins and needles where I’d been lying on it. I went back to sleep thinking it would go off but it continued when I got to work.

“I phoned my GP and was sent straight back to the neurologist who organised a further MRI scan and a lumbar puncture which confirmed I had MS.”

One of the hardest parts for Lynne was having to adjust her lifestyle.

“I had a very busy life in 2008 – I was a working mum with two teenagers, two adult step-children, a treasurer to our local football club and sports club. My husband and I also had a team of 36 racing pigeons!

“MS is all about self-management. I have 55 per cent of energy compared to a normal person. I now just have to manage my time in a very different way than I used to.”

But Lynne says it is important not to give up.

“I believe these things shouldn’t be brushed under the carpet and there is so much support for people with MS.

“You can carry on living life you just have to compromise. We just take each week as it comes. Life is still good – it’s just different.”