Capital FM's Zofia Rogers has bravely opened up about her life-altering diagnosis, confessing that she once postponed seeing a consultant in favour of a lash appointment. The popular radio host was under the impression that there was "nothing wrong" with her health.
At just 24 years old, Zofia, who spins the decks on Capital Dance, revealed earlier this week that she has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) following "months of appointments". She took to Instagram yesterday to share her health journey, highlighting that bladder control issues have been a predominant symptom of her condition.
The NHS clarifies that while MS, which impacts the brain and spinal cord, is currently incurable, treatments are available that can help manage the disease effectively. Symptoms associated with MS range from fatigue and muscle spasms to blurred vision.
Zofia detailed her situation on Instagram with a heartfelt message: "Health update: After months of appointments, tests, scans and investigations, I finally have a diagnosis of MS (multiple sclerosis). This has come as a huge shock to me as I never expected it would be something like this, and I'll have to have lifelong treatment to manage symptoms and make sure it doesn't get any worse.
"I'm really lucky that I've found it super early and I only had 2 lesions on my brain so hopefully with [the] correct treatment it will stay at a mild level. Although I'm massively in shock at this outcome and it wasn't something I was expecting, I'm also relieved to finally know what's been making me feel unwell for so long and I've now been referred to an MS specialists who will be able to get me started on treatment.", reports the Mirror.
She added: "I'd love to connect with other people who have MS as I'm still trying to learn and understand more of what it all looks like and kind of wrap my head around it, so please do drop me a dm if you have it too."
Zofia also admitted in the post that she had "nearly cancelled" an MRI scan and that she had delayed a consultant appointment at one point. Despite experiencing symptoms, Zofia said that she had been "convinced" that there was "nothing wrong".
Zofia wrote: "Funny story, I was SO convinced there was nothing wrong with me that I nearly cancelled my MRI scan cos I couldn't be bothered to take out my hair extensions as they had metal in them. And I delayed my consultant appointment cos the one they gave me clashed with a lash appointment."
She followed this with laughing emojis and: "Lashes first."
Later clarifying her previous statement, she warned against prioritising appointments for trivial things like eyelashes in a second post, stating: "Btw I absolutely do not condone moving round a doctors appt for lashes. I'm just a silly billy and I kinda thought the doctors were barking up the wrong tree so I didn't really think it was gonna be something I needed to take seriously hahaja."
Zofia later expressed her gratitude for the messages about her last couple of Stories and opened up about her decision to share her diagnosis via video from the radio studio. She said: "Thank you so much for the messages about my last couple of Stories. I really debated like sharing this because I was like 'ooh do I want to share it?' but I really wanted to just like connect with some other people who are also going through like a similar diagnosis."
Zofia informed her followers that she would detail her symptoms in due course, stating: "Basically, all the symptoms were very mild. [...] I've had nothing like major."
According to the NHS, symptoms include:
