From world records to resilience: Jenny’s life with MS

Jenny Doan’s resume is more colourful than most. A three-time Guinness World Record holder including the longest marathon hula hooping session for 100 hours. She has also cycled through 21 countries, is an in-demand motivational speaker, and is CEO of Shh!t Happens, a disability-led toilet paper company with a large social impact.

But one of her greatest achievements might be learning to navigate life with MS following her late 2024 diagnosis and using her various platforms to raise awareness and amplify lived experience.

“In late 2024, I was working full-time and doing motivational speaking as a side hustle. I was feeling a lot of fatigue and also training for my fourth Guinness World Record for the most chin-ups while hula hooping,” Jenny explains.

“I thought the fatigue was because I was doing too much, so I put in four weeks of notice to leave my full-time job. Then I started experiencing odd symptoms, like numbness in my feet. My doctor gave me some referrals and said let’s wait to see what the specialists say.”

Things changed very quickly from there.

“While I was training for chin-ups, my hands started opening while I was hanging from the bar which was really concerning. My doctor told me to go to the emergency department, because there was something happening with my spine for my hands to be doing that,” she recalls.

Not long after she was discharged from hospital, she was diagnosed with MS.

“It was a life-changing moment and I realised there was no changing it. I kept wondering, what do I do with my life here?”

Speaking to an MS Plus Nurse gave her answers to questions and “make me feel reassured that I wasn’t on my own,” and a peer support group of people around her age helped Jenny to understand more about her disability and adjust to a new normal.

“I had been an athlete with Guinness World Records and seeing that wasn’t what my body was like anymore was very jarring to me, but I found there was a lot in the psychological space that was delayed relative to the physical symptoms.

“It’s about understanding and managing that things can happen quickly, life can change shape and all of the feelings that come from that.”

These days, Jenny is CEO of SHH!T Happens, an environmentally-friendly toilet paper business that donates toilet paper to people with disabilities experiencing financial hardship, via charities like: Share the Dignity, IBD Hub and Illawarra helping Hands. Their mission is to continue growing and providing employment opportunities for people living with chronic conditions and disabilities.

“The business has been created to be flexible around people with chronic illness or disability. I don’t need to clock on at 9am and clock off at 5pm every day, it’s very flexible.

“A big part of the business is shining a light on the fact that so many people struggle with invisible disabilities that we can’t see, understand or know how to accommodate. I think we can all make a difference by being a bit more thoughtful about what other people might be going through.”