Out of adversity comes a fresh chance

A New Life: Sinead Gillespie tells Sylvia Thompson MS has taught her not to waste any opportunity.

Isn't it interesting how time spent living in a certain country leaves its mark on the individual? Sinead Gillespie was born in Derry city and at 19 she gave up her job in a shirt factory and "took off to Iceland for six months".

Eight years later, she returned to Derry and then moved to Donegal with her Icelandic husband, Karl Hermannsson, a diesel mechanic, and their two children, Kristofer (now 15) and Petur (now 13).

Her striking glasses and sharp eyes carry with them a certain cool look that is reminiscent of the Icelandic singer, Bjork. Yet, she is proud of her Derry roots and laughs about how Derry people like to talk and how her newly found career in journalism requires her to listen, more than talk.

Enthusiastic about her work as a researcher on RTÉ television series Three 60 (a series about the lives of people with disabilities from Animo Television), Gillespie came to work on the programme through her participation on the Mediability course run by Rehab which in turn came about following a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

"If someone had said to me that your life will change for the better when you are diagnosed with MS, I wouldn't have believed them but it has," says Gillespie.

Her first symptoms appeared when her daughter, Sara, was a baby. "We had moved back to Derry in 1995 and Sara was born there in 1997 but there was a lot of tension and rioting in Derry so we moved to Donegal.

"I had given up work when I was pregnant with Sara and when she was six months old, I began to get a loss of sensation and co-ordination in my hands and different parts of my body. It wasn't severe but it was frightening," she says.

Shortly after a diagnosis of MS was confirmed later that year, Gillespie contacted the MS Society and began work as a community visitor with the society.

"I decided to immerse myself in it and learn everything I could about it which had to be less frightening than imagining what might happen. It was tough at times and sometimes I saw more than I really needed to see but there was great back-up in the MS Society," says Gillespie.

"You can be plodding along, but when you have to face a big traumatic event in your life, you realise this is the only life you've got and you've got to stop waiting around and talking about things and grab every opportunity that comes your way.

"I also developed a very stubborn streak and signed up for every course that was going. I did a two-year course in counselling and facilitating and became computer literate. I finally felt some pride in myself. All my brothers were well educated and had good jobs and now I was finally doing it. It was a really busy and exciting time."

After three years working with the MS Society, she decided to stay at home for the year before her daughter started primary school. It was during this time that Gillespie first heard about the Mediability programme, a three-year journalism course based on home assignments and one course day per month in Dublin.

"I had been encouraged to read as a child and I always had an interest in writing so it seemed like a dream come true. We were given a full-time wage as trainee journalists."

Through this course, Gillespie was recruited as a researcher on From the Outside In (an earlier series on people with disabilities from Animo Television). "I was so nervous but they broke me in gently," she says.

Now from her home in Convoy, Co Donegal, she continues to work as a researcher with Three 60 and on the development of other series.

"I work from about 9am to 4pm when the children are in school. It's quite manageable.

"The only downside is that you can feel quite isolated but a phone call to a random person can pick up your whole day. It's amazing how you can make a very strong connection and develop a rapport with someone on the phone."

Meanwhile, the Icelandic culture continues to show some influence on family life. "When I lived in Iceland, I worked in factories and supermarkets. My proudest achievement of my time there was learning to speak Icelandic well enough so that people didn't think I was a foreigner.

"My husband and I still speak Icelandic together although the boys have forgotten their Icelandic. Our daughter went back to Iceland with my husband for a month last summer."

Regarding her multiple sclerosis, she says: "I have a girl who helps me with the housework which allows me to use my energy where it's needed. The multiple sclerosis is being held at bay with a daily injection.

"In some ways, I have had more difficulty dealing with recurrent bouts of depression than with multiple sclerosis. This is something that I think is important to talk about because depression is still very misunderstood and people have so many fears about it. Medication for depression works for me and I stay on it for six months to a year each time once I recognise the symptoms. This allows me to have a very active, productive life."

Gillespie remains optimistic about her new found career in journalism.

"When I finish this contract, I'll feel more confident about approaching other production companies.

"With technology now, you can do most of your work from home and travel to places when it's necessary."