Name: Marian Soto Coronado
Age: 50
Where do you call home? Oliva de la Frontera (Badajoz), Spain.
Education/Career: I’m a school graduate and I have an administrative assistant degree. Currently, I am a housewife.
Who do you live with? With my husband and my two children.
What’s a typical day for you? I get up and have breakfast, I gather everything I can and I put on the washing machine, then I make lunch… In the afternoon, I do gymnastics and then a little pool workout, some days I spend some time with my friends at my house and the time I have left, I read or watch TV etc. I try to be with my children as long as I can between one thing and another.
How long have you known you are living with FA? I was diagnosed with some tests in Badajoz when I was 35 years old, so I have been with this disease for 15 years.
Are there any others with FA in your family? Yes my brother Enrique.
Describe your transition from walking to walker/wheelchair. I use a walker when I am at home, and when I go out I use a scooter, I am sick and it costs me, but I try not to stop walking.
What do you like to do to stay active and what type of exercises work for you to stay strong? I like to do exercises in the pool, and I spend an hour a day with a physio doing exercises, the exercises that I do stretching, squats, walking between parallels, some balance etc.
Do you have any hobbies or special interests? I like reading.
What is a good trick to make daily life easier? My trick is to think about my family.
When FA gets you down, what do you think/do to feel better? It depresses me very little, because I don’t think about it much. I prefer to live day to day and try to think as little as possible about FA.
What is one way living with FA has POSITIVELY affected your life? It has made me stronger.
What is the best advice YOU could give a person who has been newly diagnosed with FA? My best advice would be that you have to be strong and enjoy your day-to-day as much as possible.
What is the first thing you want to do when a cure/treatment to FA is found? I would like to run.
“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 have FA but I don’t consider myself as such. I live with it with the help of my children and my husband, who help me with everything and treat me as if I was not sick.
Tell us a little more about you… I got married at 29 years old, some time later I had my two children, Francisco is 17 years and Claudia is 16 years. With my husband, they are the reason and people who keep me going.
Interview by
Maria Mercedes Sebastian