Sam's Story

Comedian, Sam Smith, was diagnosed with MS back in 2015. Having worked as a dentist prior to that, he wasn’t sure how the diagnosis would affect his career. But after experiencing significant loss of feeling in his hands quite early on, it became clear very quickly that he’d have to change careers. He jokes, “patients don’t really feel comfortable when their dentist has no feeling in their hands”.

Nowadays he works as a comedian. And while that line of work is a little easier for someone with MS, it’s his home life that’s most likely to be affected. Sam became a father just six weeks before finding out he had MS, which led to a flurry of doubt and uncertainty about the future. When his second son came along, Sam was experiencing a loss of eyesight due to the MS, which, as you can imagine, was really scary. “I didn’t know if I’d ever properly see his face”, Sam explains.

Three years down the track, Sam is learning to live a full life despite his condition. Heavily involved with the MS Auckland community, Sam’s rounded up some of his friends to help him put on a comedy fundraiser event in over MS Awareness Week.

MS can make easy things hard. But the good news is it’s easy to help. Please help MS Auckland support people like Sam, by giving what you can through Givealittle, or head to msakl.org.nz to find out more.