Haleemah Sarwar

A few months ago, I decided to go off my nerve painkillers because I was getting recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) and was trying to find the culprit. However, they...

I had my spinal tap whilst staying in hospital during my first attack. I wanted to avoid it as much as possible because at the time, every time I moved...

I haven’t been abroad for 7 years. I didn’t go anywhere for the last two years because of my NMO (neuromyelitis optica) attack. My mother and I decided earlier on...

Living with a suppressed immune system is hard. Especially as a student, going to university, taking public transport and eating out for lunch. You have to take extra precautions because...

Recently, I found out from one of my friends that someone from my school had said that I was faking my illness for attention, when I first made my Instagram...

I remember being 12, hiding in my mother’s room, and using all her makeup without her knowing. I wasn’t good at it at all, but after years of practice I...

I was born in Scotland, but my mother is from Pakistan, so I have a lot of family there including my grandmother. I haven’t been out of the United Kingdom...

Prior to my NMO diagnosis, I never took my mental health seriously. I was always told by doctors to basically "get over it" and that "things will get better." But...

This video is about how I've been feeling recently and another side of how I cope with NMO. Life isn't always about being positive. It's okay to feel down about...

It has been a whole year since I’ve been on rituximab as my NMO preventative treatment. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have this treatment available to me for...

With all honesty, the day I was told I would receive the rituximab infusion every six months, I thought it would fix all my problems caused by NMOSD. My neurologist...

It has been almost three years since I’ve had any real exams in school. For the past two years, due to Covid and my NMO diagnosis, I did not have...

As time has passed, I have picked on certain things that trigger my body into an NMO flare. My biggest trigger at the moment is stress. It’s unfortunate that I...

Getting an MRI scan for your NMO can be scary. It could be because of the size of the machine that you’ll be lying in, but also, if you have...

One would say life with NMO, or any chronic illness, will only affect the person who is diagnosed with it. In my case, that was totally incorrect. My mother spent...

I live in Scotland, and we have bad weather in general. Still, this has been one of the coldest winters we have had in a long time. I’m a law...

Read about how Hali prepared for her first day of school with NMO here. My first class was to start at 9 AM. It took around 45 minutes to get...

COVID-19 hit the world in 2020. The whole of Scotland went into lockdown. All schools shut down. The two-week lockdown ended up lasting for months. That meant my last year...

I was referred for an MRI of my brain and neck after a little NMO scare in February of this year. I may have had a relapse. I experienced migraines...

It was the fourth week of September, almost three weeks of being stuck in a hospital room alone and in pain. The doctor told me to call my parents to...