Katerina's Adventures in Rhodes

I’d been going to the Greek islands with friends for several years. The fact that I’m half Greek Cypriot could have something to do with why I love Greece so much – it’s in my blood! Apart from my sister Lucy, niece Marianna, a few good friends and some voluntary work in a charity shop, I don’t really have anything keeping me here in England. So, I go to Rhodes to ‘escape’ from ‘nothing’.

When no one was able to come with me one year, I decided to go anyway and went on my own. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1994, but managed to carry on holidaying in my favourite country. In 2004, I found it necessary to buy a battery-operated scooter to take with me on holiday and we’ve been going to Rhodes together ever since. I call him ‘my Buggy’.

I’m quite a complex person and in some ways I’d say I’m much like MS itself, in that, insofar as we’re both concerned, you never know what each day will bring!

I would have to agree with the characteristics ascribed to my star sign Aquarius: `freedom loving, original, independent, loves to travel and can be mysterious’. When it comes to men, I’ve always been fussy, and I know what I like in a man, which is something that hasn’t changed since I’ve had MS – what’s wrong with knowing what you want in your partner? Better to be fussy than unhappy or bored.

Now back to the matter in hand; when in Rhodes, I’m known to the locals and to all my friends as Katerina. This book is a diary of my experiences in Rhodes in 2008.