After 16 years with MS, Tampa man says he is in the best shape of his life

TAMPA — Bradley Romp says he is in the best shape of his life.

He is 60.

And for 16 years, he has been living with multiple sclerosis, the autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system.

“Both my legs and the left side of my face are pins and needles 24/7,” said Romp, a Tampa resident. “My left arm is completely dead.”

But a stranger would never guess the muscular and physically active Romp has a debilitating disease.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” he said.

He works out regularly, competes in golf tournaments and, on Saturday and Sunday, will ride in Bike MS: The Citrus Tour, which is the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s bikeathon to raise money to support research for a cure.

“I am trying to be this role model for other people to let them know that your life doesn’t have to stop because you’re handed a disease called MS or any other type of disease,” Romp said. “It’s the way that you approach it in your life, and I’m approaching it in a positive way for others that are out there.”

The bikeathon’s second day is a 50-mile ride that the participants pedal as a group.

But the first day offers routes ranging from 23 to 100 miles, according to the event’s website. Romp will ride the full 100, just as he has every year since 2007.

He finished in around 8½ hours during his inaugural run. Last year, he cut two hours off that time.

He expects to finish in about the same time this year, while his 17-person team of riders, named Romp To Cure MS, hope to raise as much as $50,000 for the cause.

Bike MS is a national series of bikeathons. According to its website, “each year, nearly 75,000 cyclists and more than 6,000 teams ride together to change the world for people with MS.”

Eden Quayle, a development manager for Bike MS, estimates the Citrus Tour will welcome 400 riders, around 25 of whom have multiple sclerosis.

“Because of balance issues, biking is difficult for those with multiple sclerosis,” Quayle said. “Bradley Romp is a very passionate man and we’re lucky to have him. He pushes himself through his physical barriers to bring awareness of this disease.”

The Citrus Tour takes place in Championsgate.

“It’s through all the back roads of Osceola, Lakeland, Auburndale, Lake Wales, in those areas,” Romp said. “A lot of hills, a lot of orange groves. It’s pretty cool.”

It’s also a trek he initially did not think he could complete.

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Romp and his wife, Michelle, were in Hawaii in 2006 when he “suddenly lost balance and fell out of nowhere,” he said. “I wasn’t drinking alcohol. I just suddenly had balance issues.”

Back home in Tampa, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, is “a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord. … Some people with severe MS may lose the ability to walk independently or at all, while others may experience long periods of remission without any new symptoms.”

Romp said his main takeaway was that there is no cure.

“I dropped to my knees, and I cried like a little kid for hours,” he said. “I thought my life was over.”

As the symptoms worsened to the point that he struggled to hold a drinking glass and needed help buttoning his pants, Romp said, he realized he had two choices — die with it or live with it.

He chose to live.

“I would stand in front of my mirror in my bathroom, crying my eyes out with a 1-pound weight in my left arm just lifting it and lifting it as much as I can until I could feel something inside my arm,” he said.

As he grew stronger and regained independence, Romp realized he could remain active.

He took up golf again and decided to compete in the 2017 Bike MS event.

“I fell so many times” while training,” Romp said. “My legs weren’t initially strong enough. It was like I was in quicksand. I went through hell, but I rode that year. I did it.”

The annual ride remains difficult, despite Romp’s yearlong training regimen and diet.

“The biggest issue with me is overheating and fatigue,” he said. “I use three times as much energy, just in normal talking.”

Still, Romp believes he has been lucky so far. Others living with multiple sclerosis require walkers or wheelchairs to get around, no matter how hard they work out.

Romp said he hopes such people continue to push themselves in whatever way they can.

“MS doesn’t have to stop your life,” he said. “Keep living.”

How to help

Visit www.BikeMS.org, scroll to the bottom of the website and search for Romp To Cure among the teams.