Yours is a remarkable life story and one with a good ending, not something often found amongst survivors. That you have been able to advocate for others is incredibly generous and very powerful.

It's good for us to see your level of success although for many of us, as you know, will never achieve anything close to your accomplishments. Still, as you've said "We all have to make sure we don't stop working on our lives, so we can progress a little each day, month and year.". Progress certainly does come that way, a little at a time, and we, of course, are the ones who need to actively make it happen for ourselves.

Moving ahead and success for some of us may actually be a very simple thing, it might even seem insignificant, but it's not. Progress, no matter it's dimension, is still progress and moving forward even a little bit is better than staying stuck. Hopefully support is close at hand, but it's not always there for everyone. Yet, that too can be found if we seek it out and open our minds and hearts to it. This place, MS, is one of those resources.

Rees, your growth and success have not only happened because you worked diligently towards a goal of healing, but because you had others in mind as part of your healing. I think that's an important thing for us to be aware of, we have a responsibility towards each other here. We have an obligation to care for ourselves and each other in ways that moves everyone forward. We're participating in something bigger than ourselves here and we need to try to be or to become better than we were.

Thank you for your inspiring story and for your concern and advocacy of all of us who are male survivors. Very best wishes in all you do!

Gary / 1.healing

George Elliot

"You cannot find peace by avoiding life."

Virginia Woolf