Name: Irina Tescureanu
Age: 34
Where do you call home? I was born in Moldova, but I call home the place where I feel happy, where next to me are people I love and people who love me.
What is a typical day for you? The typical day for me, besides the daily routine like shower, dressing, etc., starts with reading, computer working, piano lessons, and sometimes kinetotherapy.
How long have you known you are living with FA? My symptoms started at 18-19 years old, but I discovered I have FA in 2014 in a clinic from Brussels, where Dr. Massimo Pandolfo diagnosed me with FA.
Are there any others with FA in your family? No, no one.
Describe an adaptation and/or transition you have had to take due to living with FA. The transition was slow, hard, and painful because I didn’t want to accept me in a wheelchair.
What do you like to do to stay active and what type of exercises work for you to stay strong? I keep doing whatever people think I can’t do or are hard for me…
Do you have any hobbies or special interests? Oh, yes: reading, traveling, crocheting, playing activity games, and playing piano.
What is a good trick to make daily life easier? Think positive and keep smiling.
When FA gets you down, what do you think/do to feel better? FA never gets me down, it’s only in my mind, and in these kind of moments I try to keep my mind busy.
What is one way living with FA has POSITIVELY affected your life? I always joking that it’s nice to be in a wheelchair because you have priority almost all the time, even when I fly having a flight ticket for economy class the pilots let me stay on business class and the crew is treating me like a business client.
What is a favorite motivational quote of yours? ‘I can not do this’ is just a way to say it will be hard, yes, will be hard but not impossible.
What is piece of advice that someone with FA has given you that encourages and inspires you? Always break the rules, the statistic aren’t about all us.
What is the best advice YOU could give to a person who has been newly diagnosed with FA? Live life and be happy, be you!
What is the first thing you want to do when a cure/treatment to FA is found? I want to dance again.
“I have FA but FA doesn’t have me.” What does this statement mean to you? How do you live your life in the face of adversity? I think less now about FA, sometimes I forget I have FA… FA limits my mobility but it’s improving my brain capacity. Because of this disease, I can see who I really have next to me. FA is like a strainer for people.
Tell us a little more about yourself… I find beauty and love in everything around me, I’m naive, sometimes too naive, but this make feel alive. I draw life in my way.
Interview by
Xhesika Peza