Aussies dig deep for MS despite virus

AUSSIES have outdone themselves with record donations to multiple sclerosis research.

Donations adding up to $10.5 million have poured into MS Australia from the public after the May 50K and other fundraisers, while an extra $3 million has come from MS groups elsewhere.

MS Australia president Des Graham said he was overwhelmed by the community’s generosity, especially given the COVID19 pandemic meant many Australians were falling on hard times.

“This is magnificent given the circumstances we find ourselves in,” Professor Graham said.

Prof Graham, who lives with MS, said the funds would mean the world to people with the disease, a central nervous system condition that can lead to muscle spasms, loss of motor control, memory loss and sometimes other disability.

“If you asked any of the 26,000 people with MS what their desire would be it would be to find that holy grail of a cure so that the next generation of people with MS either have a cure right at the very start or have treatments that prevent the disabilities associated with

MS,” he said. The Menzies Institute has made progress in the past three to five years by helping to identify 230 genes associated with MS.

Prof Graham said the research formed “a big piece of the puzzle”.

“In the next three to five years we expect not only to double that knowledge but to triple it probably to the point where we’ll understand the cause,” Prof Graham said.

Tasmania has one of the highest rates of MS prevalences in the world, with 1300 people statewide living with the condition, believed to be linked to sun exposure and vitamin D.