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Student's comic highlights hidden MS symptoms

Robbie Boyle
BBC Scotland News
University of Aberdeen Claire Roberston smiling wearing a blue denim topUniversity of Aberdeen
Claire Robertson was inspired to make the comic as her father has MS

A student has created a new comic to help highlight the "invisible symptoms" of multiple sclerosis (MS).

University of Aberdeen PhD student Claire Robertson was inspired to create the comic because her father lives with the condition.

A team of MS experts and comic book artists helped her create the book titled Through the MS Looking Glass.

The story follows an Alice in Wonderland-style narrative to help highlight the condition's symptoms.

University of Aberdeen Comic panel showing two elf-like charaters, one in orange overalls and the other in green. One charachter has green hair, and the other has orange. There is a sleeping cat and a bunny. University of Aberdeen
The story follows two friends - one who has MS and one who does not

The 27-year-old student said she wanted to create something engaging and to present information about the condition in an "approachable way".

She said: "MS is a topic that is quite close to my heart, because my dad has it. He was diagnosed back in 2011.

"It is something I've grown up around and I'm very used to.

"I feel like there is quite a lot of stigma with MS, so I wanted to visualise the symptoms through a comic using things like visual metaphors."

Invisible symptoms of MS are things that people struggle with but are not immediately apparent to others.

These include pain, fatigue, brain fog, bladder and bowel difficulties, dizziness and mental health challenges.

University of Aberdeen Three panels of the comic book. The first one shows a boy speaking to sleeping a cat. The boy asks "who are you", to which the cat replies "I am the MS symptom fatigue". The second shows a tired girl with a pen in one hand and her head in her other and it explains MS fatigue is not just tiredness. The last panel show the boy and the cat again. The cat says "I need to go catch some Z's now. Follow the path". University of Aberdeen
The comic highlight invisible MS symptoms

The story follows two friends - one who has MS and one who does not.

"The friend who doesn't have it struggles to understand it," Claire explains.

"So they go on a journey to interact with different hidden symptoms along the way and gain a better understanding of what it can be like to live with these hidden symptoms."

The artwork was created by Cat Laird and Ashling Larkin, while a team of experts were also involved in making the story to ensure the detail about living with MS was accurate.

MS advice 'more approachable'

Claire hopes presenting the information through a comic can make understanding it "less scary".

She added: "It is more approachable to read health information when there is this kind of interplay between the text and the image.

"With the comic it is just trying to get people thinking about health information and engaging with it when you are maybe not looking for it."

The story can be found on the MS Trust website.

It is hoped a wider physical run will be produced soon.

University of Aberdeen Front cover of the comic reads "through the MS looking glass". It has a boy with his head in his hands surrounded by broken glass outlining symptoms. University of Aberdeen
The comic is available to read online

The MS Trust said the comic could help raise awareness about the "less obvious symptoms" and "improve knowledge" about MS.

"With invisible symptoms, there's a lot of stigma that can come with them, especially from people who don't have an understanding of MS," it said.

"There can be a lot of misunderstanding surrounding hidden symptoms and a lack of awareness of the difficulties that individuals with MS can face daily."