Little MS Sunshine

I must confess, I haven’t yet seen Little Miss Sunshine. I do like the title however. A few years ago, I was the keynote speaker at a Northeast Florida MS Society meeting. It was a over cast day and deary day and I had a ton on my plate as a move from Florida to Tennessee was pending in a few days. At the conference, I met a lady named Cheryl Chatman. Since this week is MS Awareness Week, it seemed like a good time to introduce my friend Cheryl, who indeed is Little “MS” Sunshine.

Cheryl Chatman lived as much of a normal life as anyone could imagine until her world was rocked when in May 1990, at age twenty-five, she began to lose her eyesight. “My vision began to fade in and out and I told my husband I think there is something terribly wrong with me,” Chatman recalled. To make matters worse, she wasn’t even with her family when her problems began. With medical evaluations, her fears were confirmed. She was told that she had multiple sclerosis. Shortly after Cheryl found herself legally blind. She was at a loss. She felt hopeless and afraid of the future. Like so many, she experienced the questions: Why me? Why now? Why MS? After 10 days of 3000 mg/day intravenous steroid treatments, she lay helpless on a sofa. She recalls being surrounded by her small children and telling herself “Cheryl you were not given a death sentence, get up and live”. Her period of feeling sorry for herself was short. She took charge of her life.

Her husband Leonard Chatman says, “I’m seeing my wife transform, literally, into something much stronger and more dynamic than I could ever imagine.” She began researching MS and inspiring others with MS. She says, “I told them, ‘look I’ll volunteer, I’ll help, I want to do what I can to help other people’.” That lead her to speaking at MS events all over the country and finally to developing and leading a weekend retreat for couple on how to live with MS. Her husband says of her, “She is a personal champion, a personal advocate, and an ambassador nationwide for this disease.”

Two quotes that define Cheryl Chatman’s view of living with MS are “Yes I have MS, but MS doesn’t have me” and “You can’t be pitiful and powerful at the same time.” Cheryl chose to be powerful. Because she made that choose over feeling sorry for herself, more than 5000 couples and 15,000 people have attended the Art of Living With MS workshop she and her husband Len facilitate all over the country. She has been on the cover of MS magazine, on countless news programs and she’s written a great book entitled The Art of Living with MS; Six Secrets For Managing MS as A Team.

Among countless other awards, Cheryl has been awarded the Presidential Points of Light Award and The National Making A Difference Award, given to couples who have a great impact nationally. She and Len also recently received a $2.5 million grant from the federal government to continue their work around the country.

Cheryl doesn’t see her MS as a barrier. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. She believes that MS has been a blessing in many ways to her and her family. Her son has even spoken for a children’s program talking to youth whose parents live with MS. The entire family traveled to New York last week to be filmed for a segment on the Montel Williams show.

She might have just lived out her life in a “normal” way, raising her children, being a supportive and loving wife, and perhaps having a second career after her children left home. But destiny interviewed and her purpose and passion were revealed through adversity.

Cheryl’s hasn’t let MS slow her down one bit. She and her husband ride a tandem bike in the MS 150, a 150 mile bike ride in North Florida. “One day there will be a cure,” and she says to people that she speaks to, “If you all decide to give up, you better think of me because I’m not giving up.” She lives that motto too having run in The Gate River Run on the hottest day in race history. Twice she had prepared for the race but couldn’t finish. In 2002, running with her husband, Chatman, 40 at the time, finished the 9.3 mile race in 2 hours, 20 minutes … all 23,397 steps (her husband counted!).