Is this a true story?

Yes. Tessa Colliver is a real person who shared their own story in their own words. Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit that shares first-person stories of overcoming adversity, told with the person's consent.

What organisation produced this?

Kintsugi Heroes, a registered Australian not-for-profit. Every story is shared with the hero's own consent and reviewed under Kintsugi Heroes' trauma-informed content standard before it goes public.

What did Tessa Colliver learn from this experience?

After thirty years with MS, Tessa focuses on what she can do rather than what she cannot, which has allowed her to live independently, drive, and walk her dog.

What would Tessa Colliver want listeners to know?

Finding the right therapist matters more than having any therapist, and sometimes you have to try more than one before finding someone who can help you challenge yourself and think differently.

What helped Tessa Colliver most along the way?

Meditation, specifically using an app to slow her breathing when stress would otherwise cause her to hyperventilate, has been lifechanging for Tessa over the past five or more years.

What would Tessa Colliver tell someone going through something similar?

Getting a dog forced daily walking that gradually rebuilt Tessa's fitness and stamina, making international travel feel liberating rather than exhausting for the first time.

What topics does this episode cover?

This conversation includes growing up on the farm, nathan's surgery and sudden death, fingers that wouldn't hold a pen, typing room and waiting for answers, the northern territory holiday and hands coming back and finding the right neurologist and starting injections.

Tessa Colliver

Tessa’s Path from Grief to Strength and Purpose

Tessa survived her brother's sudden death, MS at 16, and her father's suicide. Thirty years later, she walks daily and works.

Surviving suicidal thoughts When your mind turns on you Surviving a disaster+3

Hear this story

Overview

Tessa grew up on a farm in rural South Australia, riding bikes and motorbikes, spending summers at the beach with family. When she was ten, her brother Nathan died suddenly from a congenital heart condition. A year later, at sixteen, her fingers stopped working. She couldn't hold a pen during a history project in the cemetery. Weeks or months passed before she saw a neurologist and got her MS diagnosis. While waiting, she spent school days isolated in the typing room. IV steroids helped her hands recover during a family holiday to the Northern Territory, and she watched her handwriting improve day by day in her diary.

In her twenties, living in Melbourne, Tessa started injectable disease-modifying treatment three times a week. She moved back to Adelaide in 2006 to be closer to family, but arrived just in time to watch her father's health unravel. He had Graves disease, which brought depression and anxiety. On 10 July 2006, he took his own life. Tessa was 28. Months later, in early 2007, she had a severe MS relapse that left her barely able to walk or drive. For the first time, she was genuinely frightened about her future.

Tessa got involved with peer support groups for suicide loss, which helped her heal. Nearly ten years ago, she got Boss, a Jack Russell cross. Walking him every day gradually rebuilt her fitness and stamina. Now, thirty years into living with MS, Tessa works as a consultant from home, lives independently, drives, and walks her dog daily. She has found meditation lifechanging, especially the Calm app for slowing her breathing when stress builds. She watches her brother's children grow up and focuses on what she can do rather than what she cannot.

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses suicide & self-harm prevention, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au

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