{"id":24574,"date":"2026-05-29T14:41:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/i-named-him-freddy-olga-and-her-life-with-multiple-sclerosis\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:12:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T18:12:32","slug":"i-named-him-freddy-olga-and-her-life-with-multiple-sclerosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/i-named-him-freddy-olga-and-her-life-with-multiple-sclerosis\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;I named him Freddy&#8221;: Olga and her life with multiple sclerosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a professional pianist, Olga has found the Wheeleo\u00ae to be an unobtrusive, stylish and ultimately indispensable companion.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"La scl\u00e9rose en plaques et le Wheeleo\u00ae\u00a0: Olga t\u00e9moigne \ud83c\udfb9\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3-XkTRHfWBk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you live with multiple sclerosis, every mobility aid tells a story. Olga&#8217;s begins with a series of trials &#8211; foot lifts that didn&#8217;t work, canes that offered too little balance, a four-wheeled rollator deemed too cumbersome, too present, too &#8220;in front of you&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The four-wheeled rollator is someone in front of you. Whereas the Wheeleo\u00ae is right next to you. That&#8217;s the great thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A meeting that had nothing to do with chance<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was <a href=\"https:\/\/bobrovnikova.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/bobrovnikova.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Olga <\/a>herself who insisted on trying the Wheeleo\u00ae. Her physiotherapist, who had worked at Melsbroek (National MS Center), was familiar with it &#8211; but had not suggested it to her. A walk together was enough to convince everyone.  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What Olga describes is not simple functional satisfaction. It&#8217;s a relationship. She named her Wheeleo\u00ae <em>Freddy<\/em> &#8211; after Freddy Mercury, her favorite artist. &#8220;I personalize it like a friend,&#8221; she says, with an obviousness that goes beyond the anecdotal. Getting to grips with a walking aid also means learning to live with your body in a different way.    <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Music as a common thread<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Olga is a professional pianist. She gave concerts, signed contracts, led a busy career &#8211; until MS came along and redefined the contours of what was possible. Rather than break with music, she chose to pursue it in a different way: by exploring the links between musical practice and neurology, between sound and brain. What we now call music therapy.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Wheeleo\u00ae accompanies this active life: to the doctor, to the physiotherapist, to the library, to a concert, sometimes to class &#8211; &#8220;sometimes I need it, sometimes I don&#8217;t&#8221;. This flexible freedom says a lot about what the right tool can do, at the right time. <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Share to convince<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Olga isn&#8217;t keeping her discovery to herself. As a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.liguesep.be\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.liguesep.be\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Belgian Multiple Sclerosis League<\/a>, she has shared her experience with several friends &#8211; and many have adopted the Wheeleo\u00ae in their turn. As for the stares in the public eye, they don&#8217;t worry her: &#8220;People ask questions, especially in hospitals. And then I explain. It&#8217;s enough to have a dialogue, it&#8217;s enough to be heard.&#8221;  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A simple message, delivered with calm: assisted mobility has nothing to hide. And trust, once found, changes everything. <\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a companion that goes well with you. You have to try it &#8211; really try it. And as soon as you have the confidence, then it works.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Olga-SEP-576x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-24354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Olga-SEP-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Olga-SEP-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Olga-SEP-768x1365.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Olga-SEP-864x1536.jpg 864w, https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Olga-SEP-600x1067.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Olga-SEP.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a professional pianist, Olga has found the Wheeleo\u00ae to be an unobtrusive, stylish and ultimately indispensable companion. When you live with multiple sclerosis, every mobility aid tells a story. Olga&#8217;s begins with a series of trials &#8211; foot lifts that didn&#8217;t work, canes that offered too little balance, a four-wheeled rollator deemed too cumbersome, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334],"tags":[],"profils-type":[],"expertise":[284],"situation":[],"profils-et-pathologies":[313],"class_list":["post-24574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonials","expertise-user-testimonials","profils-et-pathologies-multiple-sclerosis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24576,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24574\/revisions\/24576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24574"},{"taxonomy":"profils-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profils-type?post=24574"},{"taxonomy":"expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/expertise?post=24574"},{"taxonomy":"situation","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/situation?post=24574"},{"taxonomy":"profils-et-pathologies","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wheeleo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profils-et-pathologies?post=24574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}