As she cheerfully chats away about life with multiple sclerosis, Cami Walker is living proof that it's better to give than to receive.

For this is the woman who almost halted the devastating condition in its tracks - by giving away 29 gifts.

Gift-giving isn't exactly a standard prescription for this wasting disease, but when Walker sank into a mire of self-pity as she struggled with pain and disability, an African healer wisely judged that mindful altruism, rather than medication alone, could be the best way out of her pit of despair.

In 29 Gifts, the powerful book she's written about her gift-giving journey, Walker explains that the idea behind the unusual remedy was to get her to focus on what she could give others, rather than her own limitations.

And not only did the prescription of giving 29 gifts in 29 days rapidly shake off her self-pity and despair, it changed the businesswoman's outlook.

"I now look at the multiple sclerosis diagnosis as more of a gift," she says.

"It's something that's helped me learn about myself and others, and had the diagnosis not happened, none of what followed would have happened.

"I feel like I'm leading a very purposeful life, which I wasn't before I got sick."

That's not to say that any lack of purpose was particularly evident in Walker's pre-MS life. She had a demanding career in an advertising agency, and had just married her partner Mark in a dream wedding on a Mexican beach.

But within weeks of the wedding, Walker's seemingly perfect life was shattered by the MS diagnosis, which led to profound depression, and a cocktail of medication that did little to dull her emotional and physical pain.

The book charts the utter misery Walker felt, living in what she considered to be a useless body - until help of a different kind came in the form of South African healer Mbali Creazzo.

Creazzo, who knew Walker before she became ill, simply told her to give away 29 things to others in 29 days, in order to gain peace of mind.

While the gifts didn't need to be of high material value, they had to be things Walker felt were scarce in her life or she couldn't live without.

"By giving," Mbali told her, "you are focusing on what you have to offer others... inviting more abundance into your life.

"Giving of any kind begins the process of change and will shift your energy for life."

Understandably, the high-powered Hollywood businesswoman was sceptical about such off-the-wall advice.

But a month after she was given the 29 gifts prescription, with her illness making it hard to walk and affecting her sight, Walker decided she had nothing to lose by trying it.

"I just decided to go ahead and try this as a little experiment. The fact that it actually worked for me blows my mind."

The 36-year-old stresses that the gifts didn't have to cost anything at all - the very first one she gave was a simple phone call to a friend who also has MS.

Other gifts in her first cycle of giving - she has completed about 20 cycles since - included giving a friend a boost by helping her with ideas for work, her husband a piece of cake, some loose change to a man in need, and saving a seat for a friend.

"You definitely start to shift your perception over what you think of as a gift," says Walker.

"A gift is when you're making a very mindful and conscious offering to another human being with no expectation of something in return."

"It's not necessarily a wrapped-up package with a bow on it - reading a book to your child before you go to bed is a gift.

"Cooking dinner for your family's a gift, and so is letting someone go in front of you in traffic.

Walker says her favourite gifts have been giving out dozens of roses in the street.

While most of those who are given a rose are gracious, she admits that a few ask how much money she wants.

"Occasionally people are wary, thinking there's no such thing as a free lunch. That's understandable," she says.

Since she became a giver in March 2008, Walker's condition has stabilised. She's still on medication, but can usually walk without a cane.

Although she still has bad days, she hasn't deteriorated as she initially feared she might, and has even had the strength to found a branding and marketing consultancy which helps women start businesses.

Although she is by no means cured, Walker says that her life has improved dramatically and she puts it down to a state-of-mind induced by giving.

"I wish I could say that giving 29 gifts cured my multiple sclerosis, but that would be dishonest.

"I still live with the effects of this disease, but the difference is that I cope a lot better."

She says her stable health has been "a big, unexpected gift" and explains: "I put it down to a shift in thinking that the giving has brought. It's created a different way of approaching life.

"People feel good when they give, and 29 days is long enough to create a habit, a new way of being."

As well as writing the book, Walker has created an online 29 Gifts community, which currently has 7000, mostly female, members.

They share their gift-giving experiences online, and have a common aim of reviving the world's giving spirit, through the 29-Day Giving Challenge.

Members have very different reasons for taking up the Challenge, ranging from illness to simply being unhappy.

"They may not be very ill or have a major trauma going on," explains Walker, "but they feel stuck and they're wanting to see some change.

"Maybe they just want to feel happier."

Just as the motivations vary for individual gift-givers, so do the results.

"Some people have profound changes, and there are others who have more subtle shifts in the way they think, which are just as important, but not as dramatic," says Walker, whose husband has tried the Giving Challenge and "had fun", she says.

She concedes that her initial reason for giving was selfish - it was all about feeling better. But giving makes the gift recipients feel better too, so it's win-win approach.

"I started feeling better and I started sharing with other people because I thought it could help quite a few of them," she says.

"I focus on what I'm capable of instead of limitations that I might have. It works for me, so I just keep doing it."

The giving has also kept the overwhelming self-pity that dogged Walker at bay, and, laughing nervously, she admits: "I think I'm probably a nicer person since I started it.

"I think about others more than I used to.

"I've had to go through a lot of pain and suffering because of this illness, but I've come out ahead in the end."

Her advice is for everyone - whether they've got problems or not - to try gift-giving because it's fun, and there's nothing to lose.

"Give it a try no matter what your circumstances are, without expecting something huge to happen to you.

"Just do it for the sake of doing it, do it for the sake of giving, and see what happens."