Fee Hainsworth

Location: Manchester

Challenge: Multiple Sclerosis

Website: facebook.com/musicianswithdisabilities

Fee Hainsworth is a musician from Manchester who lives with MS. She started her musical life as a drummer when she was in her teens and has been lucky enough to play all around the UK with some fantastic artists and bands. She adds "After a string of gigs, I began to feel something wasn’t quite right when I had persistent pins and needles in my left arm and feet. I had just put my problems down to trapped nerves and tiredness from some lengthy gigs (up to 3 hours). After a while I struggled with pain and stiffness in my legs and terrible fatigue".

It took a while for her symptoms to be recognised by various GPs. After things progressed about 8 years ago, Fee met an amazing Australian locum and after a subsequent MRI scan and futher tests, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She adds "By this time, I had already decided to swap to the bass (which I was naturally better at!) while still drumming using my hands for fun. It wasn’t much easier with my fatigue on bass (I played very fast bass lines!) and one of my first gigs was a festival in Germany with additional travel and accommodation issues. However, I figured out a technique to conserve energy on stage and when my MS worsened, muscle memory kicked in and I let my fingers do the work!"

Fee was trying to time her injections so she would be well enough to play "I wasn’t tolerating the side-effects very well!" says Fee, but she think it must have been the adrenaline and determination that pushed her through the rests.

Fee recalls "I was referred by a fantastic MS Specialist Nurse to a neuro-physio who taught me a range of stretches and balance and strength exercises to help me with my legs. I still have significant difficulty with many activities but have recently done some shows playing a few songs both on bass and on drums with a steel pan band in the Caribbean!"

Fee has become a Mum to a beautiful baby boy who she is already teaching drums and bass! She adds "As a result I’m not travelling or playing live quite as much at the moment but having suffered from anxiety and depression, I am studying Music Therapy and its benefits and have set up a fb page Musicians With Disabilities with the primary intention of meeting and connecting people local to each other who enjoy playing music but also to share the information I’m learning, positive stories/memes and importantly, to raise disability and invisible illness awareness".

Two of Fee's favourite sayings are: 'Don’t let what you can’t do, interfere with what you CAN DO' and 'Never give up. There’s always a way!'.

Fee Hainsworth