On 21 June 2004, the editor met Michael Perthu - adventurer and inventor - who talks about the time he had an MS attack while climbing a mountain, how he developed two inventions - and more.

An energetic - and fast-talking, enthralling talker - Michael Perthu meets me in Copenhagen.
"My first invention was a mobile shower cubicle. It was a project I had started before I got MS. The shower is perfect if you don't have a permanent installation, such as in small flats, and I got the idea back when I bought a Copenhagen flat that didn't have a shower. A few years later, I was looking at flats again, and many of them still didn't have a bathtub or a shower."

Then Michael patented his mobile shower cubicle. He was diagnosed as having MS only six months after he had started to develop his invention.

Yet before that, he had travelled to France to climb Mont Blanc.
"I was a little numb in my neck and hands when I arrived. My fingers were 'asleep'. But at the time, I didn't realise it was MS."

The weather was already bad when he and his fellow mountaineers started their ascent. The winds were strong and the conditions worsened after they had left the base camp.
"Suddenly I was standing on the middle of a wall of ice and I couldn't hammer my ice axe into the ice," Michael remembers. I couldn't see where to attach it. At first, I thought I was suffering from acute mountain sickness, but we reached the top by making a team effort. The situation was getting more and more dramatic, though. The storm was increasing and visibility was almost nil. A man on one of the other teams died," Michael says.

"On the way down the mountain, I couldn't walk properly. I was suffering the full force of an MS attack. I stumbled and fell. As I was falling the ice axe ended up in front of me and I fell on it, breaking a rib. Luckily I wasn't hit in the chest by one of the sharp ends," Michael points out.

Michael takes out a climbing axe and demonstrates. "Just looking at these sharp tips makes me shudder."

At the National Hospital in Copenhagen, Michael was told that there was nothing wrong with him.
"But I said to the doctor 'I can't use my arm!'," Michael remembers. "I told him that I had just started my own company so I wasn't trying to get sick leave."

Michael got in touch with a general practitioner. He quickly suspected Michael's ailment and referred him to an MRI scanning.
"When they told I had MS, I almost felt an inner peace. I guess it was nice to finally find out what was wrong. And I said to myself, 'I can handle this'," Michael says.

"When they gave me the diagnosis, they also let me choose the disease-modifying medicine. I had the option of choosing from three different interferon-beta medications. I selected the one that is taken intramuscularly for two reasons: first, you only have to take it once a week, and second, there is an athlete in the US who uses the same medication, so that made me feel more confident about taking it,"

"The nurse didn't tell me about the difference between the products. I had to find them out for myself, and I thought that was important," Michael continues.

"But I had a problem, because I had to inject myself with the syringe at home.

"I'm left-handed, and my entire left side was paralysed by the attack. I didn't have the strength to inject myself, and I couldn't hit the vein, either," Michael remembers.

"After a lot of thinking, I discovered I could use a part of the vacuum-cleaner hose to help me. I wound a lot of tape around the syringe and dropped it through the tube and it would end up deep enough in my thigh muscle. Then I could inject the medicine using my right hand.

But travelling around with a vacuum-cleaner hose was impractical. Besides, Michael couldn't see exactly where to put the syringe.
"I heard through the MS association that many people had a fear of needles which made me realise that an injector would help a lot of other people, too. But back then there was no such thing as an injector for intramuscular injections."

So the injector was developed from a vacuum-cleaner hose, the same injector that many MS patients in Scandinavia use today.
"I visualise how something should work. When I'm faced with a problem, I do a lot of thinking about the possible solutions, and then it just comes to me," Michael says.

"The injector started with a simple drawing I made myself. I took it to a drawing office and then to someone I know who has a metalworking shop where the first prototype was born. Later on, I found a technical partner who specialises in injectors. They're the ones who are manufacturing our injector today. They also make products like Novo Nordisk's insulin pen," Michael states.

But an invention doesn't just come out of the blue. When Michael was developing his injector he relied greatly on the advice and the experiences of MS nurses, patients, technicians and Biogen Idec. Many nurses, for instance, thought that the injector should be equipped with a child-proof device.
"We decided to go for quality instead of a cheap, plastic injector that only lasts a year. That's why our injector is made of metal and is highly precise.

"The plastic injectors for subcutaneous injection are clumsy and automatically pump in the fluid with a powerful jolt. I've seen many women with MS with bruises caused by their injector, which is discouraging to have during the bikini season," thinks Michael. We wanted to make a small, flexible injector that would let the user be in control of how slowly the medicine should be injected," Michael relates.

"An injector should give both the patient and her family a feeling of freedom. Some weeks it's a mental strain to take your injection and that's when it's nice to have an injector."

"This may sound strange, but getting MS was like getting a present. I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people who I never would have met otherwise and I've had the opportunity to develop the injector. Besides, I've felt fine up to now," Michael adds.
"My greatest satisfaction is doing something that others are pleased with and really benefit from," Michael believes.

He's purposeful, optimistic and bubbling with energy.
"It was important that I started thinking about something else besides the disease as soon as possible. I was determined not to let my MS overwhelm me. I felt that I wanted to try doing something that I wouldn't have done if I hadn't contracted MS. I felt that I had everything to gain and nothing to lose," Michael philosophises.

But far from everyone who gets a good idea turns it into reality.
"I believe that each of us is endowed with sufficient drive and optimism to make an invention become reality. All you have to do is focus on the next difficulty and not the thousands that come after that. You have to tackle one problem at a time without losing sight of the goal or of whether you are staying within your budget," Michael advises.

One might think Michael's mountain-climbing days were over, but that's not true. As to whether he is afraid when he's climbing, he replies, "No, never. But I respect it."

By Marcus Dahlman