When her teenager was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at just 15, Keira O’Donnell refused to stand by. From challenging doctors to overhauling diet and lifestyle, she turned fear into action — and hope. In this episode, Mathew Embry sits down with Keira to hear how she navigated pediatric MS and what others can learn from her journey.
Mathew: Welcome to Hope and Health. I'm Mathew Embry, and today we're with Keira O'Donnell. Keira is a mother, volunteer, and advocate for people with multiple sclerosis after her daughter was diagnosed with a pediatric form of MS.
Keira, thank you so much for joining us.
Keira: Thank you for having me.
Mathew: Can you first tell us about your daughter’s diagnosis?
Keira: My daughter was diagnosed at 14 years old. It was completely out of the blue for us, no MS on either side of the family. One day she came home with a really bad headache. She had just started high school, and I thought it was just a migraine.
She couldn’t see out of one eye, which I’d heard could happen with migraines, so I told her to rest and take some Tylenol. The next day she seemed better, walking around, saying she felt fine, but she still couldn’t see out of one eye. That’s when I knew something was seriously wrong.
We went to our doctor the next morning. He was immediately suspicious and sent us to an optometrist, who then sent us to the hospital eye clinic. Within two days, she had an MRI. It was incredibly fast, I know some people wait months.
Her MRI showed innumerable lesions, they couldn’t even count them all, and she was diagnosed with MS within three days. We were completely blindsided.
Mathew: For people who don’t know, multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease where lesions form in the brain and spine, leading to various symptoms and disability.
So, your daughter suddenly becomes blind in one eye, what are you thinking at that point? Brain tumor? Stroke?
Keira: Honestly, I had no idea. It sounds funny now, but there had been a solar eclipse just a few days earlier, and I thought she might have looked directly at it. It never crossed my mind that it could be something like MS.
Mathew: What was it like hearing that diagnosis?
Keira: It was terrifying. I barely knew anything about MS. From what I understood, it was degenerative, that she’d end up in a wheelchair, and that was all I could think about. We were referred to a neurologist at the children’s hospital, but pediatric MS is rare, only about 3% of all MS cases.
So, there wasn’t an MS specialist there, just a general pediatric neurologist. And unfortunately, it was not a good experience.
Keira: The neurologist put a lot of fear into us, and my daughter. She pushed for medication but wouldn’t recommend one specifically. She handed us a pamphlet of a few drugs, some crossed out because they weren’t approved for pediatric use. None of them had been tested on children.
That was a red flag for me right away. I remember thinking, How am I supposed to choose something like this?
I started researching and came across the MS Society UK website, which had a great breakdown of the different drugs. Ultimately, we chose Tecfidera — only because it was a pill. My daughter was needle-phobic, and daily injections weren’t an option.
Mathew: You mentioned that first appointment was full of fear. What was said that made it so distressing?
Keira: By the time we saw the neurologist, my daughter had more symptoms, numbness in her arm and leg that came and went, weakness, even something called the “MS hug,” where she felt pressure around her chest and throat.
When we told the neurologist this, she looked at me, with my daughter sitting right beside me, and said, “Have you ever considered that she might be faking some of these symptoms?”
I was stunned. My daughter was traumatized by that comment. The neurologist also claimed that because my daughter only had brain lesions and no spinal lesions, her symptoms couldn’t be real, which I now know is not true.
It was terrifying and left me with zero confidence in our care.
Mathew: So now you’re scared, unsure, and being told to pick a drug without guidance. What do you do next?
Keira: We went ahead with Tecfidera, but more red flags came up. I asked about dosage — since my daughter was tiny, barely 80 pounds — but the neurologist said there was only one dose, tested only on adults. That made no sense to me.
Around that time, a friend gave me a book: The Wahls Protocol by Dr. Terry Wahls. I didn’t know anything about it, but I read it immediately. It’s about using nutrition to manage MS, and it just made sense.
Mathew: So you read The Wahls Protocol, written by a doctor who used diet to recover from MS. What did you do next?
Keira:
I went straight to the pantry and started throwing things out. We decided to go “Level 3” — the strictest version, right away. I told my daughter, “We’re all doing this as a family.”
Within a week, her symptoms started improving. Within four to six weeks, she was completely symptom-free, except for the optic neuritis, which resolved over the next few months.
Mathew: That’s incredible.
Keira: It was amazing. We saw results so quickly, and that gave us hope.
Mathew: So she’s getting better — but she’s still taking the drug, right?
Keira: At first, yes. She wanted to try it because the doctor had scared her. I convinced the neurologist to start her on a quarter dose because of her size.
But after each dose, she got worse — more symptoms every day. On the fourth day, we had to rush her to the hospital because she couldn’t even sit up. That was the breaking point. We stopped the drug completely.
Mathew: And after stopping it?
Keira: She improved quickly. Within weeks, she was back to being symptom-free.
Mathew: At this point, you’re seeing results. What gave you confidence to keep going with the nutritional path?
Keira: We started meeting others doing the same. I found out Living Proof — your documentary — was showing at the Calgary Film Festival. My mother-in-law and I went, and it solidified everything. We felt empowered.
She was young, her body could heal, and we believed this was the best path for long-term recovery.
Mathew: So you didn’t stop there. What else did you explore?
Keira: A lot. We saw a chiropractor who specialized in NUCCA — an upper cervical adjustment that focuses on aligning the atlas and axis (where the skull meets the spine).
My daughter had two major soccer concussions before her diagnosis. The chiropractor explained that every head injury affects the neck, and misalignment can disrupt blood flow and nerves. It made sense to me.
He was also a strong believer in the Best Bet Diet, so it all aligned. After a few weeks of treatment, she felt better — more stable.
Keira: We also made lifestyle changes. I hired a building biologist to measure and reduce EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) in our home, especially around her bed. We turned off Wi-Fi at night to help her sleep better.
Sleep became a huge focus after I read Why We Sleep by Dr. Matthew Walker. I protected her rest like nothing else.
We added a magnetic sleep pad to mimic grounding, converted an unused shower into a red light therapy and infrared sauna space, and incorporated those therapies regularly.
We even tried acupuncture, but she was too nervous about needles, so we stopped that one.
Mathew: You truly left no stone unturned.
Keira: Exactly. We did everything that made sense and didn’t add unnecessary stress — because stress is the enemy with MS.
Mathew: Keira, your story is extraordinary, from the shock of diagnosis to taking control through nutrition, lifestyle, and persistence. Your daughter’s recovery is a testament to hope, resilience, and the power of informed choices.
Keira: Thank you. It’s been a journey, but if our story gives even one family hope, it’s worth it.
