Emma Gillespie

And she told me a lot more treatments are available now compared to a decade ago.

Exactly.

And that gap is really what this survey is about.

So it found over 75% of those who were aware of MS said they either don't believe or don't fully agree that people with MS can have an active and happy life, even with treatment.

But when researchers asked people living with relapsing remitting MS what their lives actually look like, nine in 10 said that they feel positive about their future.

The overwhelming majority said that with the right treatment and support,

they can live actively and fully.

So that really paints that picture of that disconnect between public perception versus lived experience.

So the real world implications of that attitude and that gap really show up in the everyday lives of people living with RRMS.

So one example is the research found that three in four people living with this type of MS have had their ability to do their job questioned.

So that's by their colleagues, by their managers, that's after telling someone about their diagnosis.

So disclosing to a manager or colleague saying, hey, I'm living with RRMS,

They've then had three and four have had the ability to do their job questioned.

So that goes to the stigma that it creates.

Exactly.

And so this is a stigma not being exacerbated by strangers.

We're talking about people that they work with by your closest trusted colleagues and people in your life.

To that point, one in two people with RRMS have been told they shouldn't have children after disclosing their diagnosis by people close to them.

So we can think of stigma as being really far away.

But for people living with MS, that stigma can show up from the people that they're closest to.