A High Wycombe woman who woke up with "pins and needles" in her bum was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Jane Matthews, 40, said the sensation spread from her left bum cheek to her knee and after three GP visits experts thought she had sciatica.

But her symptoms got worse.

At times she battled "unbearable" tingling in her face, was paralysed from the waist down, and was only able to be up and about for 30 minutes before she had to rest.

Despite MRIs, brain scans, appointments with neurology consultants and going to two hospitals, she was told she had transverse myelitis  - a neurological condition.

But it wasn't until she had a second episode a year later, she was finally diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Remarkably she says having MS has improved her life - because it has made her take her health more seriously.

Jane, an accountant, said: "My mind was 30 but my body was different.

"When I received my diagnosis, I was very uncertain about the future and looking back now, I realise it was a really miserable time. 

"I was struggling to accept the diagnosis and was worrying too much about what would happen to me in later life.

"I think the hardest thing was letting go of the person I was before the MS."

In July 2013, Jane woke up with discomfort in her left bum cheek but thought it was from sleeping funny.

Jane said: "Over the weeks the numbness spread down my leg to my foot and moved across to my right foot.

"I then had an episode in my left eye.

"It would keep flickering in my head. I couldn't drive or see straight."

Jane went for an MRI at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and then sent for a brain scan and then a neurology consultant. 

Jane said: "By the time I went to hospital again I couldn't lift my right leg off the floor - I was dragging it along.

"I went for an assessment at John Radcliffe Hospital and I was paralysed from the waist down at that point.

"They catheterised me and I was sent for an emergency scan."

Doctors told Jane she might have MS and gave her steroids which she said helped but didn't officially diagnose her until a year later.

Jane claims doctors told her she could have been suffering from transverse myelitis 
 instead of MS and the discomfort would go away.

In July 2014, Jane woke up with a tingling pain in her hand which spread up her arm into her face and became "unbearable".

She said: "Anything that touched that side of my face felt sharp and uncomfortable - it spread across my face.

That month, Jane was told "there was clinically no doubt" that it was MS and she said her "life changed forever".

In February 2015, Jane started on tecfidera -  a twice-daily pill - and oxygen therapy at Chilterns Neuro Centre, which involves sitting in a chamber and breathing in pure oxygen.