Young Aussie reveals the only ‘normal’ symptom she had before being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis aged 22 – and women under 40 are most at risk

At first glance, nothing indicates that Cassidy Krygger has been unwell for five years and suffers from an incurable neurological disorder.

Life as she knew it changed forever when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in October 2018. She was only 22 at the time.

The disease, which has made headlines recently following the diagnosis of Hollywood stars Selma Blair and Christina Applegate, causes the body’s immune system to attack and damage nerves throughout the body. It is most commonly diagnosed in women aged 20-40.

It is incurable and can lead to serious symptoms if signals to the brain are affected; effects include the inability to walk properly, the loss of hand and arm function, pain, vision changes, and memory loss.

It was on Cassidy’s AFL finals day a month prior to her diagnosis that her left eye started hurting “out of the blue” and she ignored it at first.

“My mum was nagging me to go to the doctor and get it checked, so I did and the GP was immediately concerned,” Cassidy, now 27, told FEMAIL.

After visiting an optometrist, she was sent straight to the hospital for an MRI scan.

After a few days of anxiety, Cassidy went with her mother to the ophthalmologist appointment to receive the outcome of the scan.

“He said, ‘Well, you have MS,’ and it was a complete shock to the system,” she said.

“I remember looking at Mom and she started crying – it was heartbreaking to see.”

She remembers the feeling of that crushing moment as if her body “fell through the earth.”

MS mistakenly sees the body attacking and damaging the fatty material — called myelin — around the nerves. The cause remains unknown.

MS is detected by lesions and Cassidy has at least 10 lesions in the brain and a few on her spine.

The following weekend was a “blur” and Cassidy woke up in the middle of the night thinking it was all a horrible nightmare. She would also hear her mother crying in the other room.

“I didn’t know anything about MS except doing the MS Readathon at school,” she said.

It was a month before she was able to see a neurologist and felt “kept in the dark” about how serious her condition was.

“There’s a lot of bad information online about MS and thought it just couldn’t be true,” she said.

It took her 12 months to accept her fate and at first she suffered from severe fears because she is a “natural overthinker”.

“With MS, I couldn’t quite calculate that it will be with me forever until the day I die. It just didn’t make sense,” she said.

As time passed, Cassidy devoted herself to a health plan that would allow her to continue enjoying life.

“I had never felt like I wanted to fight, so I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’

‘I don’t worry about it anymore. I have trained my brain to think in such a positive light and always try to see the bright side of things.

“If something bad were to happen, we will deal with it when it comes. But today I can walk. I can’t let this affect my life, I have too much life to live. I can’t let this control me.’

Today, she is often felled by fatigue and is prone to illness. She recently had pneumonia and was hospitalized.

As for treatment, Cassidy is put on a drip at the hospital every six months to try and “stop the MS” and her physical condition is deteriorating.

As an escape, Cassidy started a Hollywoodland Photos account in November 2022, sharing classic photos of iconic old stars with the likes of Sharon Stone and Marilyn Monroe gracing the page.

Cassidy, who appeared on shows like Neighbors and Offspring, has been obsessed with old Hollywood since she was six years old, and it’s what inspired her career.

She was diagnosed with severe social anxiety at the age of 12 and it was then that old Hollywood first became her escape from reality.

“Doctors said it would be unlikely I would ever be able to leave the house due to the severity of my social anxiety. At this age I discovered the magic of Marilyn Monroe and escaped to the old Hollywood world,” she said.

Cassidy is also currently producing her own short films – her first ‘Enigma’ came out last year and went to film festivals around the world.

She is currently working on her next movie titled ‘Daisy’ based on the true love story of her great grandparents, Daisy and Charlie.

Cassidy hopes her story will inspire others to recognize that there is life beyond an MS diagnosis.

“It’s okay to mourn your old life — it’s okay to cry or scream into a pillow — just know it’s going to be okay,” she said.