Dior Andrade admits she was never the pace-yourself kind.
Whether it was cheering for her high school football team, performing with a dance crew, juggling duties at a local airline or coaching young cheerleaders, Andrade pursued her passions with an energy and focus few could match.
But then, slowly at first, her hands started going numb, and the vision in her left eye went askew. Before long she noticed that the words flowing from her brain were getting bottlenecked in her mouth.
It was 2007. She was 26.
"I had an MRI done that showed the little lesions," Andrade recalls. "They told me it was one of four things: lupus, cancer, a thyroid problem or MS."
A spinal tap confirmed it was multiple sclerosis, a devastating autoimmune disease that affects the brain, spinal cord and, by extension, potentially anything connected to the two.
"I’d heard of it, but I didn’t really know what it was," she says. "I had to do a lot of research. It was scary not knowing and then scary once I found out."
Andrade had always been active, tireless in pursuit of the things she loved.
She had taken dance classes at Rosalie Woodson Dance Academy starting in the fourth grade. At Aiea High School she was a cheerleader and founder of a dance crew, II Xtreme.
After high school she worked for Island Air, serving as a flight attendant, dispatcher, customer service agent, supervisor and whatever else the company needed. When she wasn’t working, she kept busy as a cheerleading coach at Damien Memorial School. But she has been forced to accept that even as weekly injections keep her disease at bay, a short walk or a hot day can wipe out her energy and leave her limp as a rag.
Some days, Andrade finds herself overcome by fatigue just vacuuming the floor. So she will rest a spell. It takes more patience than Andrade ever wanted to have.
Andrade says she gets by with the support of her family — parents Douglas and Dolores and younger brother DJ — and the care and understanding of her fiance, Justin Nobriga.
She also draws energy from those Damien cheerleaders who remind her so much of herself.
"If I’m having a bad day, I just go down there, and they make me smile every time."
