Multiple Sclerosis Awareness month aims to help find a cure

To the editor: May is Multiple Sclerosis Awareness month. If you are one of the 75,000 Canadians (3,500 of them live in Saskatchewan) who have the disease, you are very aware every day of what MS can do to the quality of your life.

MS is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. The disease attacks the protective covering wrapped around the nerves in the central nervous system, leaving scar tissue on the nerves. Symptoms of MS may include extreme fatigue, speech and visual problems, shaking, loss of balance, numbness, and sometimes even paralysis to mention a few.

As yet we do not know the cause of this disease and we do not have a cure. For the past 65 years the MS Society has been raising money for research to end MS. To date, we have invested over $125 million in the quest for a cure. We are committed to this research. In the year 2012-2013, $14 million was allocated to research. Because we receive less than one per cent of our sponsorship from pharmaceutical companies and less than five per cent from any form of government, we need your help and support to raise the necessary funds to attain our goal. Our annual MS Walk to raise money will be held in Swift Current on Sunday, May 26, starting at Ashley Park Hall at 1 p.m. Check in time is from noon to 1 p.m. To register for the MS Walk call 1-800-268-7582 or register online at www.mswalk.ca.

Once again we are appealing to the generosity of the people in the Swift Current area. We are looking for volunteers, donors and walkers.

Together we can find a cure for this heartless disease which attacks our young people and annually costs the Canadian people at least $1 billion in lost productivity and medical expenses.

Let’s be part of something monumental! Let’s take the last step together and end MS!