An estimated 2,000 people are expected to raise more than $280,000 at Walk MS: Cheshire on May 5 at Cheshire High School. This year, walkers are inspired by a new study conducted by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and published in the February 15, 2019, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, which shows more than twice as many people in the U.S. are living with multiple sclerosis than previously thought. The previous studies estimated the prevalence to be 400,000, but this new study shows that number is closer to 1 million.
Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are leading to better understanding and moving us closer to a world free of MS. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with at least two to three times more women than men being diagnosed with the disease. MS affects more than 2.3 million worldwide.
To find a walk near you, to participate or to volunteer, visit walkMS.org, call 855-372-1331 or email fundraisingsupport@nmss.org.
For more information about multiple sclerosis and the National MS Society go to nationalMSsociety.org or call
800-344-4867.