Marcillene Dover was walking to class in Hubbard Hall at Wichita State when her legs gave out a couple years ago.

“I was grabbing the wall, and my knees were popping back and forth,” Dover said.

After asking a stranger for help, she made her way to the elevator, tears streaming down her face.

A 19-year-old freshman at WSU, working three jobs and making less than $20,000 a year without health insurance, Dover panicked. She worked as a tutor at North High School, as a sales person at Payless Shoes and at the Heskett Center at WSU.

Dover, now 21, is in the Medicaid gap, and she has multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurological disorder that causes the immune system to attack the nervous system.

Since her diagnosis, she has been advocating for the expansion of KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program. She recently was featured on the news for participating in a public legislative forum where she shared her experience living with MS without insurance.

She signed up with Project Access, an organization that donates medical care for uninsured, low-income residents of Sedgwick County. The service covers her medication that costs $2,000-$3,000 for each injection.

“Without Project Access, I would be paying $1,500 every time to get an MRI, “ Dover said.

Even while on medication, Dover never knows when the symptoms of numbness, trouble walking, fatigue and slurring words could flare up. She takes MRIs when she needs them.

By the end of the day, her right leg drags, which causes her to trip.

“I feel like I don’t have time for myself or I just want to sleep because another symptom of MS is fatigue,” Dover said.

Disability Services works to help students like Dover who have trouble walking to class.

“We have golf carts … to transport students around campus,” said Grady Landrum, director of Disability Services at WSU. “We would be able to pick her up at the parking lot and then give her a ride to the building where her classes are.”

She has had to give up walking dogs for the Humane Society, running at the Heskett Center or anything that involves a lot of walking.

“I used to workout at the Heskett Center all the time, and once I fell off the treadmill I realized I shouldn’t be doing this anymore,” Dover said.

Dover grew up poor and learned from an early age that if she needed something, she would have to do it herself.

Earning her way through college with financial aid and scholarships as a dean’s scholar, Dover is familiar with working hard to achieve success.

Dover, now a student teacher at East High School, will graduate in May from WSU, and she hopes to work as a physics teacher at North High School where she went to school.

“She was always willing to help anyone who needed tutoring in any subjects,” said Kimberly Hewitt, North High’s 2012 class sponsor. “She has a very giving heart and she always wants to help the underdog, and now she is the underdog.”

But Dover does not act like an underdog. She continues to advocate for herself and others despite the daily battle with people who don’t understand.

She looks past the confused, confrontational stares she gets for using a handicapped decal or because she walks funny.

“MS is one of those diseases that is not on TV or anything, and people don’t understand anything about it,” Dover said.

She eventually wants to continue her education and earn a master’s degree in education and make a difference in her students’ lives.

“If you don’t advocate for yourself, nobody is going to do it for you,” Dover said.

Rides from Disability Services are available from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. Contact the office at 978-3309. It is located in Room 150 in the Grace Wilkie Annex.