You would think riding a bus with multiple sclerosis would be like anyone else’s trip. But not this particular day. I was on my way to my vocational training. I usually take the bus to save my energy for my workplace. And since I am unsteady because of my MS I went for the orange seats for the physically impaired. Getting to the seats I am shaking and having to hold on to something because the bus driver couldn’t wait for the only person (me!) embarking the bus to pay and sit down. As a MS warrior I have symptoms such as spasticity and subnormal balance. I also have difficulties finding my words in a stressed situations like this.

There was four orange seats in a 2 seats facing 2 seats formation. There is already an older lady sitting in one of the seats and her backpack in a second seat. When I sit down she starts yelling at me.

– You can’t sit there!

I calmly asked her why?

– Because I say so!

I had not heard of a new queen of Skåne so I assumed she was afraid of the corona virus and didn’t want to sit too close. So I showed her using my hands that there was the recommended 2 m distance between us. SHE. WAS. NOT. OKAY. WITH. THIS. She kept screaming at me, kicked me twice on my knee (!) and got her bag and sat down on another seat, next to another passenger! On her way she also hissed “fatso” to me.

Or was it my age that made me disqualified to sit on the orange seats? I know my diseases are “invisible” but is some understanding too much to ask?

Last year (before corona came to Europe) I spent some weeks dog sitting in London. Probably because the subway is such a big part in the life of a Londoneer they have a better “solution” to this. You can contact the “Transport for London” and they’ll send you a badge with the text “Please offer me a seat”. And, wearing this badge, I was never denied a seat. Go London!

Want to read how I got my MS diagnosis?