// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
I'm leaving the BBC after MS pain made it hard to carry on
Elizabeth Quigley has worked at BBC Scotland since 1999
I have lived and worked with multiple sclerosis for 26 years, almost as long as I have been a BBC Scotland journalist, but recently I have been absent from the airwaves.
I've been struggling with a condition called trigeminal neuralgia, external that causes excruciating pain like an electric shock across the side of my face, which can stop me from speaking, eating or drinking.
It's not part of everyone's life with MS but it has recently become part of mine - and being unable to speak is not great for a broadcaster.
Thanks to my neurologist and the NHS team looking after me, I've managed to regain my speech and reduce the amount of discomfort I'm in - but the pain can, and does, reappear.
So, unfortunately, I've had to make the very difficult decision to leave the BBC on health grounds.
Elizabeth with her husband John Swinney after he was returned as first minister earlier this year
Before I started here in November 1999, I had previously worked for the Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Scottish Daily Mail.
I was just 28 when I became the BBC's first female political correspondent in the new Scottish Parliament. Three months later I was diagnosed with MS.
I had been having a strange feeling of pins and needles in my face and was convinced it was a problem with my wisdom teeth. It wasn't.