Local bowler Kay Cook, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in high school, hits five consecutive strikes at Valley Bowl

Take the “t” out of “can’t” and say, “You can do it.”

Local bowler Kay Cook, 86, lives by this mantra.

On April 17, the day after she landed from a surprise family trip to Holland and France, Cook bowled five strikes in a row at Valley Bowl.

“People live their whole lives and don’t bowl five strikes in a row,” Cook’s friend and roommate Jeannette Gildehaus said.

What makes this achievement more amazing is that Cook has lived with multiple sclerosis (MS) for most of her life and is unable to bowl like her peers.

According to John Hopkins Medicine, MS is a long-lasting disease of the central nervous system. Because of damage to the nervous system, electrical impulses are unable to properly conduct to and from the brain. This can result in loss of balance, memory trouble, loss of vision, weakness and paralysis.

Cook was diagnosed with MS as a junior in high school. Her doctor informed her there was no treatment for MS, and she would be bedridden for the rest of her life.

“I jumped off that table (and) he said, ‘You can be bedridden,’ ” Cook said. “And I told him, ‘Not me’ and went out slamming the door.”

Many years later, Cook still has the same “can-do” attitude.

Cook’s approach to bowling is unique. Due to MS, she is unable to throw the ball down the lane as other bowlers do.

“I just stand up there, me, myself and I, and I spot bowl,” Cook said.

Cook lines up her ball with the guiding spots on the lane, stands straight up and drops her 12-pound ball down the lane.

Despite not having the same speed and power as other bowlers, Cook regularly bowls strikes, according to Gildehaus.

“It’s not a happy accident,” Gildehaus said. “She also picks up spares and those are hard. They’re harder than a strike.”

Cook first started bowling in the 1960s when her husband’s fire department started a women’s league. Even when some of the women stopped bowling, Cook continued.

“I’ve always been active all my life,” Cook said. “I just have to have something (to do).”

Before she was diagnosed with MS, Cook was an active West Valley High School athlete. She played tennis, volleyball and badminton, and was a cheerleader.

Gildehaus still remembers the day she learned of Cook’s diagnosis.

“I was coming down the hall and she was coming toward me,” Cook said. “She turned to me, and she says, ‘I have MS.’ I said, ‘You have what?’ (But) by then she was walking away from me – very gracefully because she walked really good then – but I was just standing there. My mind couldn’t take it. How could Kay have MS?”

Cook’s answer is simple: “I’m a positive person. That’s why the Lord picked me to have MS.”

Cook bowls every Monday at Valley Bowl and has no intentions of stopping. Her goal is simple: to continue to bowl.

“(If) you don’t set a goal for yourself, you’re down the tube,” Cook said. “That’s what keeps me going: goals and positivity.”