Bachelor Star Megan Marx Doesn’t Want Her Rare Neurological Disorder to ‘Define My Life’

After sharing in January that she’d been diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder, Bachelor star Megan Marx is giving fans an update on her condition.

While doing a Q&A on her Instagram stories late Sunday, Marx answered a fan who asked, “How’s your health? You’re looking healthy and happy.”

“It’s mostly good, thank you,” Marx replied. “I feel like I need to talk a little bit more about spinocerebellar ataxia on my socials, but I really don’t want it to define my life.”

Marx hasn’t shared much about the disorder since disclosing the initial diagnosis in a now-deleted Instagram post in January.

“Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA6) Months of waiting for gene test results, I met with the neurologist on Friday. S— news. Diagnosis,” Marx wrote alongside a selfie.

Spinocerebellar ataxia is a group of inherited brain disorders that affects the cerebellum — which the Cleveland Clinic explains is the “part of your brain vital to physical movement.” The degenerative disorder can also impact the spinal cord, and affects about one to five of every 100,000 people.

As the condition progresses, it can cause problems with the eyes, hands, speech, legs and mobility. Symptoms include involuntary eye movements, loss of hand-eye coordination, learning disabilities, and slurred speech.

These symptoms typically appear after age 18 and slowly worsen over several years, per the Cleveland Clinic.

There is no cure for spinocerebellar ataxia, however, treatment plans involve minimizing symptoms and improving function.

In January, Marx said she was “Feeling grateful for my physical body right now, in its present state, before neurological degeneration attempts to take some of me from me.”

The model continued, “All the yays for love making and skinny dipping and hiking and painting and food-ing and bad dancing and awful conversations at bars.”

A month after revealing her diagnosis, in another Instagram stories post Marx shared that “It’s late onset with SCA6. I’m perfectly healthy & plan to be for a long time. The little niggles in the meantime are just that,” she wrote. “Anyway, this is how I feel about things today, don’t ask me tomorrow😜.”
And she’s maintaining that positive mindset, as Marx shared in her recent post, writing, “I’m lucky, I’m grateful, I’m healthy.”

source: people.com