Our journey with myasthenia gravis and myaware started in early May 2021. I was rushed into hospital with a suspected stroke and came out with a rare neurological disease called myasthenia gravis. Our lives had been changed forever.  We really felt lost until my neurologist told us about myaware. From that day we have had so much help and support from the fantastic team at myaware.

My wife Deborah firstly made contact on my behalf and spoke to a member of the Support Team who was incredibly friendly and so helpful. She reassured us and assisted us both with becoming members of myaware. The Support Team member asked if we had any issues in particular that we wanted to discuss. We were actually having issues at that time with my employer in regards to my absence from work due to shielding and being newly diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. We had our concerns passed on to myaware’s Welfare & Benefits advisor.

He rang us the next day and spoke to my wife on my behalf as I was having speech problems. Over an hour and 4 x A4 sides of notes later, The Welfare and Benefit Advisor had walked my wife through the minefield of an employer trying to dismiss me on the grounds of capability. His vast knowledge was incredibly helpful. He was patient and explained every step of what I had to do in detail.

My wife put the plan into action on my behalf. We dealt with formal meetings with the area manager and occupational health assessments using the information from the plan. The outcome to date is that I am still an employee and the company's efforts to dismiss me have not worked. It has removed the unwanted stress and worry of the fear of being cast on the jobless scrap heap. We could not have done this without the help and support of myaware and the Support Team’s expertise.

We were also advised to put in a claim for PIPS as my symptoms of myasthenia gravis were severe and so debilitating. We were sent an email with helpful info on how to fill out a PIPS assessment form and told to contact him again once we had a date for our assessment.

My assessment was yesterday. My wife had been given useful info on what to say and basically how to survive the ordeal. We are now awaiting their decision. We could not have done any of this without the help of the myaware team. Lastly, we have also attended two Zoom meetings and found them really informative. A big thank you to the myaware Support Team for running the sessions.

Our journey so far with myaware has been incredibly positive. We know that if we ever need help in the future the myaware team are at the end of the phone.
Many Thanks

Joseph & Deborah Hodson

Keep up the good work