Miss Scotland is backing a charity that helped her brave cousin come to terms with a devastating diagnosis of an incurable health condition.
National beauty Amy Scott, 25, has thrown her support behind MS Society in honour of her cousin Rhyiza Croy – who was diagnosed with progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) five years ago – just a day before her 26th birthday.
Amy from Strathaven, South Lanarkshire, is set to raise awareness of MS on the global stage – as she represents Scotland in the Miss World finals in Telangana, India in May.
The Miss Scotland champ has already raised £3,000 for the MS Society, after hosting a charity ball and volunteering at fundraising events.
Amy said: “I’m never going to understand what it’s like to have MS. But I do understand what it’s like to have a family member with the condition, and to watch someone you love be affected by it.
“It’s frustrating that so many people don’t seem to know much about it. If we’d known some of the signs perhaps Rhyiza might have been diagnosed sooner.
“My priority is to do anything I can to raise awareness of the condition and showcase the work the MS Society and other charities do for people living with the condition in Scotland.
“As Miss Scotland I’ve been given a much more elevated platform to help me raise awareness so I’m very happy. Hopefully I can replicate that when I go to Miss World.”
The cousins have told how they are more like sisters – with the pair “inseparable” growing up.
She said: “As close as I am with my own siblings, it’s always been me and Rhyiza. I was obsessed with her when I was younger. I followed her about everywhere. There are loads of photos of the two of us together – we were inseparable.
“She’s directly in front of me age-wise so I’ve watched every single step of her life. When she was at school she was school captain and head of lots of teams. I just wanted to be like Rhyiza. She inspired me to do everything as I was growing up.”
Rhyiza has told the emotional moment Amy broke the news that she was going to back the charity on her run to Miss Scotland success.
She said: “We were sitting downstairs in my living room and she just came out with it. I think she wasn’t sure on how she would say it so she just burst out with it.
“We both had a cry. She said she couldn’t think of a more worthwhile thing to raise money for because she knows how much I’ve used the MS Society. It made me feel all shy and coy. It made me want to get up and hug her, which I did, because I didn’t have any words to say.
More than 17,000 people in Scotland live with MS. It’s a condition that affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms are different for everyone and are often invisible.
Rhyiza, 31, from Falkirk was diagnosed with the condition after suffering from mysterious leg pain throughout her teens.
As an adult she started to realise her hands would “shake really badly” as she handed letters and prescriptions to patients. Doctors soon discovered she had MS after sending her for an MRI scan.
Rhiyza says she she can sometimes be left in tears from the pain in her leg and suffers from crippling fatigue.
Rhyiza added: “When I was diagnosed I was relieved and shocked at the same time. I was relieved my symptoms could be put down to a condition because I’d often been told they were normal and that I should just take a paracetamol and I’d be fine.
“I still have localised leg pain in my right lower calf. Sometimes it’s still cry-worthy at night. But fatigue is one of the worst things I’ve got. It takes a lot for me just to get out of bed in the morning sometimes.
“The MS Society is an invaluable comfort. There’s always somebody you can ask when you have questions. They also fund research and help people to understand the condition better. If Amy’s work can raise money for those things then that would be incredible too.”
Keith Park, Interim Director of MS Society Scotland, said: “We would like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to Amy for choosing to support the MS Society during her reign as Miss Scotland and hopefully beyond.
“We wish Amy the best of luck in the Miss World contest and look forward to continuing to work with her.”
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