Vicki Woods

Born and educated in Sydney, Vicki married in her early twenties and made her home in the Hunter Valley after she and her husband purchased the local hotel in Largs, near Maitland, in partnership with her parents.

Vicki, 40, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in January 1991, six months after her only child (a son) was born. Whilst it took nearly six weeks to confirm the diagnosis, she did not experience obvious signs of the disease, and did not actually have a second "episode" for nearly six years.

In the 17 years that Vicki has been the hotelier and restaurateur at Largs, she has embedded herself in the local community and become actively involved in local government. Vicki was elected to Maitland City Council in 1999, was re-elected in 2004 as Deputy Mayor but stood down in late 2005.

The hotel has been the recipient of many awards and accolades over the years, winning the NSW Australian Hotels Association (AHA) award for Outstanding Community Service and Achievement in 1993, 1994, 1997 and 2005. The hotel took out the award at a national level in 1998.

Whilst Vicki's MS has started to noticeably deteriorate in recent years, through the support of her husband she continues to enjoy an extremely busy but balanced life of work and play.

Vicki thoroughly enjoys her role as an MS Ambassador and has embraced the challenge of educating the wider community and raising the profile of people with MS.