AN ACTRESS has called on people with multiple sclerosis (MS) to join her at a gathering of thousands of people with a link to the condition.

Ruth Curtis was diagnosed with MS in 2009 after experiencing intermittent symptoms for almost 20 years.

Since then she has continued to tread the boards and living an active life.

Next month she will be among an estimated 5,000 people who will travel to MS Life, an event being organised by the MS Society to bring together researchers, celebrities and ordinary people living with the condition.

Ms Curtis said: "I have never been before, I am really excited about the research updates and things like that but also being there with a diverse range of people who happen to have MS.

"In some point in your life if you have MS and are able to go to MS Life you have to.

"The ExCel Centre in London is an amazing venue, it is very accessible."

The 52-year-old from East Oxford experienced various symptoms down the years but it was only in 2009 when these symptoms included balance problems, a band of tightness around her chest and pain above her spleen that she was diagnosed.

Since then she has been forced to cut back on small-stage acting but does much more voiceover and TV work.

She said: "I always say I am living with MS rather than suffering from it.

"I do not know how I manage it sometimes.

"I have done things since I was diagnosed that I would never have done before.

"For example I would never have done a tandem skydive but I did one just after I was diagnosed.

"I have adjusted my life to enable me to live with it.

"But I cannot do small stage touring because it is so physically demanding."

Ms Curtis has previously starred in stage productions including Macbeth and Wuthering Heights as well as work on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 2.

She also presents two shows a week on Radio Cherwell, which broadcasts in Oxford's hospitals.

The former Oxford High School pupil said: "I didn't choose to have MS but it’s the life that’s been dealt to me so I'm just getting on with it.

"I'm a different me, but I would have been a different me anyway, just seven years older than when I was diagnosed."

MS Life will run on September 17 and 18 and tickets are free.

MS Society chief executive Michelle Mitchell said:"I’m really excited by this opportunity to bring the MS community together – from people living with MS themselves, to world leading researchers trying to find treatments for the condition.

"From yoga, wheelchair dancing, hoola hooping to café culture, we hope there’ll be something for everyone at MS Life."

To book tickets visit mssociety.org.uk/mslife