A MUSIC teacher was temporarily blinded after struggling with a disease that went undetected for a decade.

Bee Timms is just 22 years old. She had been experiencing tremors since the age of 11 but had been told by doctors these were down to dystonia – a movement disorder where muscles contact uncontrollably.

It is only now – after a series of terrifying episodes – that the Shrivenham woman has been given an answer.

She told how she lost her sight for a few days when she suffered what she now knows was a multiple sclerosis attack over Christmas last year.

“I woke up blind," Bee said. "I was on my own, there was no one I could really speak to, it was so scary but it returned not long after Christmas."

Bee had another attack in March. She was rushed to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where she had four more attacks in one week and finally found out what had been causing her problems.

The episode caused her to stutter, making it difficult to sing like she used to, and she was unable to walk properly or play the piano. Bee is working on teaching herself to do these things again.

She runs her own business, Bee Musical, which she opened in July 2019 and taught children how to sing and play the piano. She had to stop doing that while she recovered from the attacks.

Bee said: “I was at work and I was recording a song that I wrote and my leg started going funny, it was heavy, but I just thought it was nothing to worry about.

"But it got worse and then I couldn’t walk properly. I was dragging my right foot on the floor.

“Then I drove home on cruise control at 25mph, which was quite scary. When I got home I couldn’t walk anymore, in the space of nine hours I had something similar to a stroke, which was caused by my MS.

“I’m coming to terms with it, my speech is getting much better but now I have to write with my left hand, which is a challenge.

“It was really hard for me when I couldn’t walk. It’s been hard to learn these things again. It was difficult to come to terms with what I had because so much was happening at that time, but now I’m starting to understand it.”

Despite her condition, Bee is staying positive and decided to start a YouTube channel.

She said: “I wanted to make a YouTube channel to show my progress, it’s mostly for me to see how far I’ve come and to look back on.

“Anyone can watch, it’s just me messing around and sharing what I’m doing.

“It’s going to be a slow process but this will show me how I’ve got better.”

One of her students, Isla McBeath, has raised £320 after she walked 10 miles around the Ridgeway and Ashbury Circular with her mum Helen.

This will go towards Bee getting treatment at Orchard House Neurological Rehabilitation Centre in Didcot.

Bee said: “I’m really grateful that they’ve done that.

"I’m really happy they went out of their way to raise the money so I can go to rehab.”

Isla calls Bee "the bravest person I have ever met".

She said: “We did a sponsored walk for my singing teacher, I did it because I really wanted to help her with her recovery.

“When I heard what had happened to her, that she had an MS attack, I was really devastated and I instantly wanted to help in some way and that’s when the idea to do the walk came to me.

“She’s a very kind and caring person, she’s so courageous and compassionate. I’ve known her for a year now but she’s more like a friend to me than a teacher.

"We’ve raised above our target which makes me so happy.”

Visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/walkforbee