merone
parker
Former Ford supermodel, Camerone Parker, has emerged as the leading powerful celebrity voice
in patient advocacy for Multiple Scheloris (MS) and treatment. Today, she delights audiences na-
tionwide as a highly in-demand speaker, sharing her unbelievable story of being diagnosed with
MS and hiding the disease in a highly competitive world of international fashion so that she could
earn money to pay for treatment.
The former face of Olay, Camerone, has walked the runways for designers like Vera Wang, Giorgio
Armani, and Bagley Mischka, to name a few. She’s been seen on billboards around the country
for brands like Ralph Lauren POLO. Check out our exclusive interview with the courageous MS
warrior.
A former Ford Supermodel and face of Olay diagnosed
with MS when modeling. Tell us more about your story.
I was working away as a model. I did print work, run-
way you name it, and I happened to be on assignment
in Los Angeles where I was home-based in Southern
California. I was very excited to be able to stay in my
own home and work on assignments, but within twen-
ty-four hours, four models (including myself) who had
been booked for an assignment had all become very sick
and needed to be rushed to various hospitals through-
out the city. We all came down with forms of meningitis.
Mine was horrendous spinal meningitis, and I was in the
hospital for two weeks. The neurologist assigned to my
case basically said, “I see a lot of things from the test I
am running, and I want to make sure meningitis has left
your body.” He didn’t say what he was thinking, or what
it could possibly be. I thought, okay, no problem and
went through the battery of tests. Finally, the last series
of questions he had for me were, “am I tired and fatigued
often?” Of course, I had logical answers for every single
thing, I was like, yeah, I am a little tired I’m a million
miles person on American Airlines, I think I might need
a nap from airplanes (laugh). His next question, “Did I
trip a lot or have episodes of tripping?” I glared at him
and said, as a model, we always blame it on the shoes. It
is never the model who falls (laughs). But, yes, I have had
a few wipeouts on the runway. It’s the shoes, right? The
doctor then asked if I had tingling and numbness, so I
had all the right answers.
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