Meet MS Warrior Lauren Hyland
Written by Diana Moore
On a Saturday morning in December 2006, Lauren Hyland of Silver Spring, Maryland, woke up to discover that she had suddenly and completely lost her sight in one eye. She was terrified. Not yet 30, working in television production, and newly married to her husband, Steve, the future appeared bright as Lauren was just beginning to navigate her new marriage and career. But instead of settling into a routine and spending spare time hanging out with her friends and finding fulfilling hobbies, she spent the next four months visiting emergency rooms, a neurologist, a neuro- ophthalmologist, and getting numerous MRIs and second opinions. She learned in April of the following year that her optic neuritis was a symptom of a much bigger problem—she had Multiple Sclerosis.
Lauren knew little about MS and began researching it on the internet. Between what she previously heard about MS and her doom surfing, she was sure she would be in a wheelchair before she turned 40. She was scared and angry and felt her body had betrayed her. She felt completely overwhelmed, afraid of what her future held, and alone.
In the weeks before her official diagnosis, she participated in her first Walk MS in Washington, DC as a team captain for Team Making Strides. Though she had not yet been diagnosed, she was learning about the disease that seemed to be the likely culprit causing her symptoms. She was inspired by the community that came together to bring awareness about MS to the world and to support each other. Seeing some people with assisted mobility made her fear for her own future. But she found their resilience incredible. She had her own support network—her husband, family, and friends from college and work. But her worries and her questions felt too big, and she feared that piling all of it onto them would be too much. She began attending a support group for those newly diagnosed with MS through the National MS Society. Telling her story and listening to others who were going through a similar reality and challenges gave her solace and hope, and she felt understood.
Lauren began taking medication for her MS, giving herself painful shots daily. Living with MS became part of her everyday life. After she and Steve welcomed Sam in 2011 and she was engulfed in the exhausted frenzy of life as the mom of a toddler, Lauren realized that, while she was prioritizing medicine, health appointments, and healthy eating, she was neglecting one aspect of her health. Fitness and exercise had not been part of her life for years. But in the fall of 2013, she decided that every day that she still had her mobility was a gift, and that she would take full advantage of it. Having never been a runner, she started with a simple “Couch-to-5k” program. She sweated and groaned and forced herself eventually to run 3 miles without stopping to walk.
Always one to enjoy reaching for a goal, she signed up for the 2014 Race for Hope 5k to support her friend Licia, who had been diagnosed with a brain tumor earlier that year. Reaching that goal taught her that she could fight through hard training and succeed. Lauren continued to train and eventually worked her way to up to a 10-mile race. She and her friend Kate ran the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in April 2017. But that triumph felt short-lived, as the next few months after the race were a rude awakening.
Lauren was planning to run her first half marathon that fall and began training in late spring. One of her major issues with MS is heat intolerance. On warm days or with exertion, every single one of her MS symptoms worsens—blurred vision, weakness, numbness, loss of limb control, fatigue. Her attempt to train through the summer suddenly was more difficult than she anticipated. She recognized that to meet her goal of running longer distances, she would have to adapt—training before the day got too hot, wearing cooling vests and scarves, and plotting her training routes to avoid areas with trip hazards. She had to sacrifice social time and not pack her schedule to ensure adequate recovery time after training. Adjusting her training to accommodate her MS was not easy, but she was persistent. And then, eight weeks before the race, Lauren tore her calf muscle. It seemed like she couldn’t catch a break. Working with a physical therapist, she continued her training, wondering if she would be able recover in time to participate in the race, let alone meet her goal pace.
In December 2017, hauling pounds of equipment to complete parts of a video shoot for work, she boarded a plane for Charleston, SC, to meet her brother, Michael, who would be running the marathon. She was nervous and excited, and it was uncommonly cold and damp. The countless hours she had trained and rehabilitated paid off. Not only did she complete her first half marathon, she beat her goal time. She felt like she could finally call herself a runner, and she began considering if her body would allow her to take on the challenge of a full marathon.
Running and exercise became more than just an outlet and time to challenge herself and live in her own body; it allowed her to connect. She built and nurtured a community around her fitness and started to run more with friends. And she began to meet others living with MS who were just as passionate about finding joy and meaning in their ability to move.
While attending the National MS Society’s Leadership Conference in 2018, Lauren was encouraged to apply for the Meat Bike program and expand her MS Walk team to biking. Having watched a video featuring Cheryl Hile and the running team of MS Warriors and their Support Heroes she had formed, Lauren was incredibly inspired. She too wanted to challenge herself and inspire others by her example that someone living with MS can continue to be active. Lauren reached out to Cheryl, joined the RAMMS team, and committed to run her first marathon. She participated in her first Bike MS on Maryland’s Eastern Shore the next summer, riding 34 miles with her team—Making Strides (on a Bike)—and earning the “Rookie Team of the Year” award. She also started her marathon training and began to rely on the RAMMS community for advice, support, and inspiration.
In the midst of her marathon training, Lauren learned that her white blood count had dropped precipitously, and she had to stop the medicine that had been successfully treating her MS for the past two years. She worried about a relapse and how she could continue to train safely while waiting to resume treatment with a new drug. She began a new treatment—this one an infusion—and thankfully was able to continue her training. On November 16, 2019, Lauren completed the Richmond Marathon with her brother and her RAMMS teammates, including me.
Over the last 16 years, Lauren has learned so much about herself, her body, her MS, and the incredible things she can do. She understands now that MS is no longer a death sentence, she is not a victim, and that giving up and waiting for MS to overtake her was not her only option. She wants each day to be significant, and she wants to help those who are newly diagnosed to see that there is hope. MS is an unpredictable disease that affects every person differently. But no one has to feel alone in that journey. Lauren has met and cultivated relationships with many people who have not only supported and inspired her, they have become lifelong friends. The community she has built is just as important as the powerful ways she has proven to herself that she can continue to move every day.
Lauren now has countless races, walks, and rides under her belt. A marathon, half marathons, 10-milers, 5Ks, half-centuries, virtual, in person, alongside friends, with headphones, dressed as a unicorn, wearing a mask, through mud (yeah, she doesn’t need to do that one again), through rain, through pain, through heat, many with joy, and some just one step at a time. She and her Bike MS team have ridden up to 70 miles in a day, and maybe, someday, a century. Today, Lauren has her eye on running her first international race in Reykjavik, Iceland, in August 2023 with her RAMMS teammates. In May 2023, she will learn to surf in North Carolina with First Descents—a program that provides outdoor adventures for young adults with MS or cancer. Lauren and her Bike MS and Walk MS teams have collectively raised more than $200,000 to support those living with MS and fund research that may lead to better treatments and, hopefully, someday a cure.
I met Lauren in the middle of this story, in 2016, not long before our kids—now best friends—began attending the same school. I began running in 2007, but it had always been a solitary activity for me, and I had never participated in a race. For me, running was a way to keep fit, de-stress, and get some time to myself. One of the first things I learned about Lauren was her commitment to being active and her running goals. We began to run together occasionally, and one of the first things she learned about me is that I never stop talking, so our runs were not punctuated with awkward pauses, even on the steep hills.
I have always felt pretty self-motivated as a runner. But the way Lauren gathers people together to move began to inspire me to do the same. I joined the kickboxing gym she attended with friends and learned that, as I now say, “shared misery is the best misery.” I started signing up for races. I invited others to walk or run together. When people used to ask me if I was planning to ever run a marathon, I would say, “No, why would I put myself through that? It’s ridiculous.” Suddenly, it wasn’t ridiculous. The idea of running some random large number of miles just to prove to yourself that you can had never occurred to me, yet it is now one of my proudest accomplishments. And one that I may not have achieved without Lauren running beside me, feeding me energy chews (seriously, those last four miles were ROUGH).
During marathon training, my “plan” was just to do some increasingly longer runs, half hoping/half assuming that would be enough to get me across the finish line. But Lauren shared the training book she was using, and I followed her plan. She likes to set a goal and commit to achieving it with intention. Maybe she was always that way. Or maybe when you learn you have a disease that can take away what we take for granted about our bodies and how they will carry us, you have to grow up a little faster than everyone else.
I have always thought of Lauren as a better version of myself (and I recently learned she views me the same way, which is absolutely silly). She is quick-witted, charming, organized, ambitious, and kind. She embodies integrity and compassion. I have seen her show up for her friends, organize charity drives for vulnerable community members, prioritize her family, and give her full attention to her responsibilities. I have grown so much just by knowing her—not just as a runner, but as a person. She has inspired me to build, to serve, to show up, to be mindful and considerate, to do the right thing, to follow through, to give grace, and to give all of myself to something. I can’t wait to see what she does next. I just hope I can keep up.