Archives for February 2020

This post was originally written for the Access For Us blog in 2019 – It has now been updated.

It is hard to believe that the last stadium concert I attended was Green Day at The Emirates, London 2013, thankfully I didn’t require accessible tickets.

Though prior to that I had been a regular concert goer from my teens.  I was always travelling off somewhere with our local coach company who provided tickets and travel.

In 2014 I managed to sneak a couple of arena concerts in, Kelly Clarkson, Meatloaf (who was shocking) and the final one being a boy band in October 2014 which I can’t even remember the name off, but it was at the Echo Arena in Liverpool and I had to leave early because of the noise.  Yes, me a Green Day fan had to leave a concert early because of the noise.

MS affects us all differently, however, my first flare was in July 2014 when I was originally diagnosed with a transient ischaemic attack, the flare consisted of dizziness, near fainting and paresthesia in both arms, I was admitted to hospital and had an MRI scan which the results showed a lesion on my brain so I was transferred to neurology, the MS words at this time were never spoken, even though I had a positive lumbar puncture not long afterwards, the neurologist just wanted to monitor me.

This is where all my heightened sensitivities started, sound, smell, touch and light.  Therefore, it is no surprise to me that I had to leave the concert in 2014 because the noise was sending me dizzy.

In 2017 I had another flare which has since affected my balance along with weakening my left side which meant I had to resort to using a walking stick and latterly a wheelchair.

I follow rugby league and the noise level from the crowd was really starting to bother me when my sensitivities go into overdrive, my heart rate goes up and my blood pressure goes down, which if not controlled I can have near- syncope which causes me to nearly faint and my limbs start to shake, as happened here.

To try and manage this after trying numerous cheap headphones I finally gave in and bought some Bose Quiet Comfort 35 ii noise cancelling and you wouldn’t believe the difference!

Bonus Arena

In 2018 The Bonus Arena opened in my home town I thought, yes, I can start going to concerts again, I might look a bit daft at a concert in headphones but so what I am going to try.

Tickets are managed by Ticketmaster and the first concert I wanted to attend was Boyzone’s Farewell Tour, looking at the details for tickets and having never purchased accessible tickets before I noted these were only available over the phone.

At 10:00 when the phone lines opened I was in the queue, by the time I had got through all the accessible tickets had gone. 

The standard tickets also sold out the same day online and Boyzone decided to add another date, so again back on the phone, by the time I got through all the accessible tickets had gone again so while I missed out several my friends had managed to secure standard tickets.

The next concert I wanted to attend was Olly Murs, the accessible tickets again only available over the phone.  10:00 when the phone lines opened I got in the queue for accessible tickets with none left by the time I got through.

I did manage to get tickets for Sheridan Smith over the phone but then she cancelled, so I have yet to visit the Bonus Arena.

Where to go from here

My thought process now is if I can’t get tickets for my local arena I stand even less chance of getting them for any of the big stadium concerts.

This makes me feel disappointed in this day and age that as a disabled concert goer I unable to take advantage of the same online systems able people are. 

Is this not discrimination should we not have the same rights as able people to tickets for concerts?

Late in 2019 Ticketmaster finally announced that accessible tickets would be available online but still didn’t make it clear how this would be managed.

Pin me to read later

September 2019 saw Green Day announce their Hellamegatour which is coming to The John Smiths stadium at Huddersfield and still the only way to purchase tickets was over the phone.

On Wednesday prior to the tickets going on general sale, I received a priority code with contact details to ring The John Smiths Stadium direct for accessible tickets.

On trying the number it wasn’t even connecting so after trying for over an hour I rang the stadium’s direct number and asked if there was a problem with the phone line, to which they replied yes there was and engineers were working on it.

The rest of my day was spent on constant redial praying the number would come back up and to my surprise, at around 3 pm while I was driving I got through.

Safely pulling in the nearest side street I finally secured my first stadium accessible tickets. Though I still believe it was more by good luck than good fortune.

Back to Bonus Arena

I still wasn’t getting anywhere with getting accessible tickets for the Bonus Arena and when Simple Minds announced they would be there in August 2020, my friend asked straight away if I would like to go, trying again online I couldn’t get any, so I called out Bonus Arena on twitter and surprisingly they responded and I got tickets.

A couple of weeks ago Bryan Adams was announced for June 2020 and as the majority of my late teens, early ’20s was spent following Bryan Adams all over the country I really didn’t want to miss this.

Because of the problems I had experienced with Simple Minds I emailed the Bonus Arena a couple of days before the tickets were due to go on sale and I received a very standard you can get them online.

Friday of the tickets going on sale I was sat waiting patiently for the screen to open, there were no accessible tickets available, so onto the phone, I went only to get cut off as per usual.

Here we go again, so I made the decision to purchase standard tickets online before they all sold out, I would cross the accessible bridge at a later date.

Ticketmaster

The following day I called Ticketmaster out on twitter and very quickly the customer services department replied. Though I have to say they really weren’t helpful, other than to tell me there were no accessible tickets left when I asked if they could advise me how I could get tickets they never replied.

It took someone retweeting it for me to finally understand the accessible tickets process, so logging into my account I completed my profile and uploaded my PIP document as proof of disability. Why couldn’t Ticketmaster just have given me that advice?

This enabled me to secure Ronan Keating tickets for July 2020.

Summary

MS is a chronic and often invisible illness, where no two patients have the same symptoms so while I might not be in pain all of the time I do have serious balance issues which is why I use a wheelchair, therefore I require a wheelchair space wherever I go.

Both Ticketmaster and Bonus Arena could have been more helpful with their advice and not just left me fathom it out for myself, believe it or not, this is all still relatively new to me and I do need guidance, as, having these facilities doesn’t make either compliant if they don’t share the information around it.

As I do always like to end on a positive, the positive is I now have quite a few concert and theatre tickets in the bag for this year.

Rach!xx

Archive post from February 2018 – In the words of both my favourite Green Day song and Hull FC’s old ground – the Boulevard.

My Boulevard of broken dreams started as the 8th February approached, the day I should have been on a flight to Australia, I still hadn’t been to watch my beloved team play and a few of my friends had already started their travels.

For as long as I can remember my one wish has been to visit Australia. It all started when I was about 16 years old and a barmaid who worked in our local had her niece visiting from Perth, even then it sounded so exciting and something I knew I wanted to experience.

On my 50th birthday, I went to Scotland for a week with the Mowgli and some friends and that’s where I met Donna who was visiting from Australia and we just clicked and got on like a house on fire from the first instance.

When Donna went home I promised I would go and visit her at some point and I truly meant it, so when the opportunity came for me to visit my friend and watch the team I have followed for more than 30 years play their first game in Australia there was no way I was going to miss it.

Hull FC v Wigan – Australia 2016

Donna found out about this game before we did in the UK and had already told me to just get a flight and I could stay with her, this seemed the perfect opportunity and after a brief discussion with my friend Amanda, it was agreed we would book flights for me, her, her dad and her son.

We were all so excited and planned what we would do when we got there, how many people we would meet etc.,

Then this happened

And very quickly my GP strongly advised me not to travel. So after discussions with Amanda and Donna, I made the decision not to go.

In all honesty, I couldn’t have managed it I know that now but it didn’t hurt any less the fact I was going to miss my trip of a lifetime.

Friends arriving in Australia

The photo’s where coming thick and fast on social media and I was getting more and more down, so much so that one day I just stayed in bed all day and switched myself off.

Yes, the, why me? questions came that day.  As I am sure they will again at some point.

But it was hard to see people I should have been with enjoying themselves, doing the things I should have been doing.

Then I saw a picture of one of my best friends who is recovering from breast cancer and she was meeting family that a year previous to that there was a possibility she wouldn’t ever see again, and seeing her so happy and smiling just made everything right for me because at that moment that was all that mattered and my pity party was over as quickly as it started.

Summary

I am truly thrilled for everyone who had such an amazing time, there are rumours of a return visit in a couple of years, that is my goal now, I will get to Australia……

Rach!xx

(For the next few weeks I will be taking part in online learning and rather than let my blog slip I will be posting archive posts from my little known first blog “You Look Well Today.”)

I knew it was coming, it was just when it would happen, multiple sclerosis I don’t break easily.

Today, I had the full-on breakdown, the screaming, crying kind of breakdown which started with trying to get my mobility scooter in and out of the house, just so I could take my dog for a walk.

My house is an old-style terrace house that goes straight out onto the pavement but to get out you have a doorstep then a step onto the pavement, there is no easy way to get the scooter out of the house, I have tried two different ramps but it still involves me lifting the scooter or dragging from the front, which takes some doing.

So, after managing to get it out by fair mean or foul, involving lots of pulling and pushing, I set off with Mowgs (my dog), he was brilliant, and I even had him trotting alongside me which was good for him.

When I returned I then had the job of getting it back into the house, something that is supposed to make my life easier is suddenly this great lump of metal that I am having to lift.

Yes, I broke down, as usual, my poor Mum got the brunt of it, but I just can’t believe this is what my life has come to, the only way for me to get out of the house is for someone to pick me up outside or to use my scooter.

I was quite excited when I picked the scooter up on Monday and was looking forward to the freedom it was going to allow me.

But now it is just another thing that is going to take any spare energy I have.

Realisation

The stark realisation that this is my life now, no more work even though that still makes me feel so guilty, why did I think when I left last week the guilt would go with it but it hasn’t, I still look at people with this illness the ones that can still work and question why I can’t.

My local council sent back my housing application stating they had taken me off the list as I hadn’t returned the proofs they asked for, ermmm when did you ask for them? 

The ones I sent with the application form they sent back to me a couple of days later, so if they have asked for further proofs that letter got lost in the post it seems.

It also occurred to me that I just seem to live from going to bed to getting up every day with nothing much in between, yet I still throughout the day feel like I should be doing something else, but even if I try to do some cleaning, washing etc., that is short-lived because of the overwhelming fatigue that comes over me and I have to stop and sit back down.

Not acknowledging MS

I have a GP that doesn’t seem to recognise MS as on my latest fit note he has said I am under the Neurologist, yet I have seen the letter from my Neurologist that diagnoses MS and had a long chat with a different GP about this condition that I have that is progressive.  So not sure what notes the fit note GP is reading but obviously not the one I saw.

Funds getting low

Chasing up my PIP change of circumstances that was sent in on the 1st September recorded delivery only to find that they only registered it on their system on the 24th September and it was being looked at, I should find out within the next six weeks if I must go for another assessment.

Struggling to get final figures from work and the bills are piling up daily not being paid and I am not able to tell them when they will be paid.

Breakdown

So yes, the breakdown, I have never cried so much as I have just recently, through utter frustration, the screaming at the top of my voice, throwing things about, basically acting like a child having a tantrum, do I feel better for it? no not really, do I have any answers? no, will it happen again? yes most definitely.

But this is not going to beat me, no matter how hard it gets, I will dig as deep as I can to find the strength to fight it.

Rach xx