By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
THE irony was too much for Zoe – she couldn’t stop the tears from falling.
It was May 2010 and the 29-year-old from Endeavour Hills was visiting her Greek relatives in Athens, a mere two weeks after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Soon her uncle dug out an old Dandenong Journal article, cut from a 1988 edition.
Although the paper had yellowed with time, there was something timeless about the photo of 19-month-old Zoe Angourias-Verlin showing a beaming smile and clutching a teddy bear almost the same size as she was.
The article was about one-year-old Zoe taking part in a baby show fundraiser – for multiple sclerosis.
“I cried, I actually cried, because it was so ironic,” Zoe told Star News this week.
Almost three decades after she took part in one fundraiser, Zoe will be participating in another when she has her hair cut for the World’s Greatest Shave.
Zoe sees it as the least she can do. She knows what it feels like to be diagnosed with an illness that changes one’s whole outlook on life.
When the left side of her body went numb six years ago, Zoe was convinced she had a brain tumour.
The truth – MS – wasn’t any better.
“It’s changed a lot of things, I’m constantly on medication,” she said.
“It’s the little things, it’s unpredictable. I don’t know if I’m going to wake up tomorrow and feel great or wake up and my legs don’t work.”
When Zoe spoke to Star News on Thursday, her right eye has been blurry for three weeks.
“I have constant battles with fatigue and numbness,” she said.
“I have difficulty walking, I have to use a stick – I was actually walking with a frame the other day.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Zoe can’t feel her finger tips at all.
But what she can feel is the ongoing support from her family, including her husband Anthony, her seven-year-old daughter Andie, and her mum Andrea.
And until he died from lung cancer in 2012, Zoe’s father, Nick, was a constant source of inspiration.
“He was my life,” she said of her dad.
Now despite her fight with MS and the constant day-to-day battles it produces, Zoe is using her life to help others through the World’s Greatest Shave.
Her fundraising team-mates and her loving friends and family will be with her every step of the way.
“Things never get easier,” Zoe said.
“You don’t know if you’re going to get up tomorrow and need a wheelchair.
“My family is the reason I push through.”
Click here to contribute to Zoe’s fundraising campaign.
