The Many Faces of Moebius Syndrome!

Hello. My name is Aidan Lucid and I got your information from a Moebius Syndrome website. Let me tell you a bit about myself.

I'm 28, from Co. Kerry, Ireland and have had Moebius Syndrone (MS from hereon out), since birth. Because of MS, I cannot smile or move my eyes, my left hand is deformed and I had to have numerous operations on my feet as a child due to having clubbed feet. I did not let my disability deter me, however. I have gone to college and completed numerous home study courses, obtaining dilplomas of distinction in creative writing, freelance journalism and writing for TV & Radio. Two years ago I released a book of poetry entitled, A Viking's Prayer - www.avikingsprayer.com and later this year, I will have my young adult fantasy novel, The Zargothian Tales (working title) published by an American publisher. 

One of the things that was always instilled in me as a child was not to let my disability hold me back and I've pretty much stuck to this ever since, always relentless in obtaining or achieving a goal that I set for myself. My current goal is to hopefully make my novel and proofreading/editing business, "Lucid Eyes Editing" - www.lucideyesediting.com - a success and while I understand it may take time to accomplish this, I'm confident that it can be done. Was I always this confident? In truth, no I wasn't. In fact, as a child and teenager, I was very shy and very conscious of my disabilty. It wasn't until my teenage years that it really hit me about my disability; not being able to smile was a huge blow and because of the curve at the end of my spine, my walk and posture were affected too. You see, right up until my teens, I thought that I was like every kid and while I was fully aware that I had MS, I didn't realise that I couldn't smile and always wondered why everyone looked at me rather puzzledly. That was, of course, until the day I realised that I couldn't smile. I knew then what bothered people. Like I said before, it came as a huge blow and from that day forward, I became very self-conscious. There were days when I was younger when I wished I didn't have this disability or syndrome and truth be told, there are days that I still wish I didn't have it but thankfully, I am overcoming this and no longer think too negatively about the syndrome.  Of course, it is a constant struggle and I try not to get too hung up on it but I'm very fortunate that I have such a loving and supportive family and good friends.

In the last number of weeks, I've been thinking about getting in contact with other people who have MS and today I've finally decided to get in touch with other people who have MS or MS groups. I was wondering if you could possibly add me to your contacts list and stay in touch?

Thank you for your time in reading this email. I do apologise for its length and I look forward to your response.