BUFFY Goodenough is community fundraiser with Westmead Drive-based  Swindon Therapy Centre for Multiple Sclerosis, which recently held its second Christmas craft fair. She lives in Brinkworth with her husband, Paul, and their two children, Oliver and Alice. The family dog, Archie, has a day job as the centre’s therapy animal

NOBODY can truly know what it is to have multiple sclerosis – not unless they themselves have it.

Buffy Goodenough doesn’t have MS, but has insights gleaned from plenty of people who do.

“You’re sitting in your doctor’s surgery.

“For several years you’ve been having different symptoms. You’ve been having headaches – some days they’re fine, they go away.

“You’ve been having a tingling sensation down your left arm which might have lasted for a few days and then it goes away.

“One morning you can’t feel your leg, and you’re frightened. You don’t know what’s going on. You’ve been back to your GP several times, you’ve had different tests but still you didn’t know what was going on with your body.

“Today you’re with your GP. He’s going to give you the results of those tests and you came here to find out what was going on. The GP has just said you have multiple sclerosis.

“How do you feel? How is that going to affect your family? How is that going to affect your working life? Do you know how you’re going to cope. Do you know how your family are going to cope?

“How will you get around? How will you earn your money? What impact is that going to have on your life?

“Do you feel isolated? Do you feel scared? There’s no cure for MS. This is it. You have MS. You have that label now. What does that mean to you?

“That’s what happens to our members. That’s what it’s about here. We provide not just the therapy but somewhere members can go, where they can be a support to each other."

The illness leads to lesions through the nervous system, and when nerves are damaged the results can include a lack of mobility and sensation.

Buffy said: “Some people will have a mild form of MS and they can carry on normal life and you wouldn’t know.

“Some people will have what’s called relapsing remitting MS. They’ll have times when their MS flares up and they will experience pain and trauma but then that will go. They might be fine for months, they might be fine for years, but then they’ll have another flare-up and later on they might have primary progressive MS which can potentially totally incapacitate them.

“It affects different people in different ways.”

Buffy is originally from Cornwall, and is the daughter of potter Mary Rich, and boatbuilder Peter Mayes.

“I had a very rural upbringing. I went to a girls’ school in Truro, where I did my O-Levels. Then I moved on to sixth form in St Austell. At the time I was quite interested in being a pathologist. However, I realised I’d have to work very, very hard and I wasn’t very academic – me coming from quite a bohemian family. That was probably my rebellious phase.

“Then I got a job with Marks and Spencer, just for the holidays, and they then approached me to do a management training course. I ended up being a retail manager.”

Buffy worked in retail for about 15 years, including stints at WH Smith and Mothercare. She came to Swindon while working for the Early Learning Centre.

Buffy started there as a manager and began developing franchise stores, a role which took her to locations including Bahrain, Dubai and Jersey.

It was while working for the firm that Buffy met her husband, a member of the family behind Swindon firm D Goodenough Transport. Buffy then worked for the family firm until joining the therapy centre this summer.

She’d heard about the centre from its manager, friend and fellow Brinkworth resident Sonya Dykes-Brown and got the job following an interview process which included giving a presentation to the trustees.

“I decided I’d like to do something to make a difference,” said Buffy.

“I walked in and it had such an amazing atmosphere. I felt at home. It has a place in my heart.

“It’s giving people with MS and other neurological conditions hope and belief, and hope and belief are very strong words. That’s what we do. Members here have children, they have families, they work."

Life goes on and you manage your MS. You don’t let your MS manage you.”

The centre currently has 540 members. There are three part time staff, a team of physiotherapists and 70 volunteers.

“The volunteers are amazing,” said Buffy. “Without volunteers we wouldn’t be here.”

The centre, founded 30 years ago, costs £180,000 a year to run and is entirely self-funding. It has a specialist gym, treatment rooms, physiotherapy and a £120,000 hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

similar to ones sometimes used by divers People with MS and certain other conditions breathe pure oxygen while the atmospheric pressure is increased. Forced oxygenation of the blood helps to reduce the severity of symptoms.

Supporters range from individual donors and volunteers to firms such as Basepoint, Zurich, Nationwide and Dialog Semiconductor. The centre also holds collections at supermarkets such as Asda, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and the Co-op in Old Town.

Next year it plans to purchase its premises, allowing more funds to be spent on services. Buffy said: “It’s a place to come to find comfort, friendship – we’ve had a marriage this year – and dignity. Total dignity.

“It’s having that sense of pride and self-worth.

“When you give money to us, you can be confident that every single penny goes into running the centre and providing the facilities for our members.”

To find out more about the centre, its work and how to help, call 01793 481700 or visit msswindon.org.uk