Though many people are nearly immobilized by severe cases of multiple sclerosis, they can still lead relatively normal lives, said Boston University professor Anthony Barrand in his first public appearance to discuss how he has lived with the handicap for 21 years yesterday at the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Sitting on a red scooter that he uses to travel around campus, the University Professors Program professor said the disease significantly crippled his dancing career, particularly after 1996, when his progressive form of MS took a toll on his ability to walk or stand for extended time periods.
“[People with MS are] classified as hopeless people,” he told the 50 attendees in the Sargent auditorium. “People are terrified of it.”
Multiple sclerosis affects the nervous system for unknown reasons and can sometimes cause mobility or speech problems. Autoimmune diseases like MS occur when the body attacks its own tissue. While researchers are still unsure about what causes this, they have speculated that genetics and gender play a role, with more women affected than men.
“[BU has] over 900 faculty, and I am the only person I have ever seen of the faculty in a [scooter],” Barrand said afterward. “I don’t know for sure if there aren’t any. But then, there aren’t many.”
Despite the drawbacks of his condition, Barrand said he has found alternative ways to dance. Citing the namesake of his discussion, “Dancing on my Scooter,” he mentioned a tribute concert he sang at and how he danced while in a scooter with a woman who also could not walk.
Barrand teaches folk-dance classes at BU with the help of teaching assistants and said many of his dance videos from before and after his diagnosis are archived in the Library of Congress.
Event coordinator Kasey Componeschi, a Sargent junior who plans to participate in the MS Walk in Waltham along with more than a dozen other Sargent students Sunday, said she hopes Barrand’s speech attracts new members and increases donations to the Sargent team.
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