Amanda Tam shares her experience living with ALS while continuing to travel and explore new places. She talks about navigating accessibility, managing medications, and how planning ahead helps her embrace each journey with confidence and joy.
Transcript
Hi, I’m Amanda. I live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and I was diagnosed with ALS five days before my 21st birthday. I was in my second year at university at McGill. Luckily, the hospital that I’m at was only up the hill from McGill. So when I was diagnosed, right after, I actually went back down the hill to go attend class.
Since my diagnosis, I’ve traveled quite a bit. The most notable places I’ve been are in Europe. I’d never traveled outside of North America before my diagnosis, so it was pretty cool going to the other side of the ocean.
The south of France was definitely my favorite. It was probably one of the most accessible places. Italy was very nice, but very inaccessible for people with wheelchairs, obviously, because everything is very cobblestone and it’s not modern at all. So you definitely need a very sturdy wheelchair for Italy.
I went to London. Even though I was only in London for 36 hours, it was definitely something I’ll always remember. And Mallorca in Spain was definitely in my top three.
Before traveling to places that you’re not really familiar with, I would highly recommend looking at their accessibility — definitely their terrain. Not everything is flat, especially in Europe where it’s not modern whatsoever.
They have very wobbly, uneven sidewalks — or not even sidewalks sometimes. Mostly I’m always on the street just because it’s a lot easier to navigate on the street, as if I’m a car.
Every time before I go onto my flight, I always call the airlines beforehand. I let them know everything about my wheelchair, if I need an aisle chair to transport onto the plane.
They usually book my seat in advance, and luckily because I am disabled, I get preferred seating free of charge. That’s probably one of the biggest perks of being disabled and traveling on an airplane.
Another perk of being disabled is that you get to skip all the lines at the airport, especially when you travel in a big group. Sometimes, it really depends, but usually you’re allowed to bring your group with you so you can all cut the lines. It’s like my superpower.
So usually when I travel, I go for around two weeks just because it doesn’t make sense to travel abroad and spend one week where one day is just traveling, the other day is traveling back, and you really only have five days.
I usually pack my medication in a daily pill container, and that way I don’t have to bring a bunch of bottles individually with all my medication.
This really does save on storage for your personal items. I usually keep all my prescriptions in one pill bottle so that if I get stopped, I just take out my prescriptions and I’m able to tell them which prescription is related to which medication. That way, you save a lot more room in your personal bag, or your carry-on, or luggage.
I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about people who are either terminally ill or disabled physically — that we can’t do what we want to do. I think when I was diagnosed, I made a very clear point to myself that I would check off anything that is on my bucket list.
I don’t think that there should be restraints to what we’re able to do. I mean, obviously it’s a lot more challenging now to travel. But if you really want to experience the world and experience cultures, that was basically what my bucket list was — just to experience as much as possible in the life that I have.
And I think it’s just vital to know that you’re able to do whatever you put your mind to, regardless of your situation, your prognosis. It’s really all your mentality. So it’s extremely important to keep on the positive side. And once you’re there, you’re basically able to do whatever you want to do.
