Itzy Muir

Support my challenge to leave MS behind!

This May, I am running 50k to raise awareness for one of many invisible chronic illnesses - multiple sclerosis (MS). This is important to me because someone in my family has MS. I would love your support in helping me raise funds and awareness. The goal is to shine a light on the campaign to raise awareness for all invisible illnesses with a focus on MS of course. 

I kindly request your help to raise funds for an illness that still has many unanswered questions. In addition, I would like to help raise awareness and make workplaces more equitable for these individuals suffering with invisible chronic illnesses. Whilst I have been very fortunate in my seven year career to never have any sick leave questioned or denied, others have not.

Someone in my family has MS. Recently, they had their sick leave questioned by their boss. It was clear that their boss had read a book on empathy but is not actually empathetic at all. My family member realized this was not a good person to work for and gave a one month notice. However, the boss let them go on the spot. Despite that boss saying they care about this person’s personal life - including their MS - and sending gifts, they clearly just care about profit and what they should be sending is themselves to do some more learning/maturing.

In a world where negativity travels quicker than positivity, can we help those with invisible illnesses have success in the work place? Can we help management and executives understand that whether it’s a high paid employee or low paid employee, their sick leave is their sick leave. As a boss, you have the primary duty of care for your employees. These are illness that some don’t wish to disclose and they should never be pressured to do so. It is unacceptable to be yelled at for taking sick leave. It is disgusting to make someone tell you what their sick leave is for. There is no place in the workplace for anger. Their is an abundance of space for kindness and respect in this world. 

Some illnesses require individuals to take more sick leave than others, and I also want us to be conscious of that. In a previous role, a couple of my coworkers ran out of sick leave. They had matters that needed to be attended to and I donated a couple days of my leave to them. To me it didn’t feel like a lot, but my small contribution made a huge difference for them. This is something I haven’t seen in Australia yet and would like to see more of - healthy and willing individuals having the ability to easily donate their leave to someone who needs more sick leave. Some of these individuals taking more sick leave is for a matter of life or death. Unfortunately, in my time here in Australia I learnt that one of those coworkers from back home has now passed away. 

There are many things in life we cannot control. But the kindness, empathy and respect we have towards each other is in our control. Please help me raise funds for MS research!