BY SANDRA STIBRANY
I remember the day that I got the call. I remember getting the news and I remember that for minutes … I don’t know how long … my world stopped. My ears buzzed, my heart thumped my soul hurt. MS … what is it? … where did it come from? … how could it happen to my family?
Thank god for family, friends and my work family, over the next several days I needed them a lot. Shedding tears, getting and giving hugs, talking and sharing stories. I wasn’t alone. MS has touched so many people, and I never even knew it.
Over the next weeks and months I spent a lot of time on the internet trying to find out what I could about multiple sclerosis.
-
It is an auto-immune disease but no one knows what causes it
-
It remits and relapses, comes and goes, but each attack leaves a scar
-
It can strike at any age, mostly diagnosed between the ages of 20-40
-
It has no cure !
I am a volunteer for the MS Society of Canada, it is the only nationwide organization that is dedicated to providing programs, services, and support for people with MS and for their family and caregivers. It is also the organization that is dedicating 60 per cent of its revenues to research to find better treatments and a cure.
Canada has the highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world. This is Canada’s disease, and we will beat it!
