The National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s new awareness campaign, being promoted now through March 13, will engage people across the country to raise awareness, and share experiences and solutions to live their best lives.

MS Awareness Week is a time to recognize progress made and to inspire others to take action toward achieving a shared vision of a world free of MS.

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. MS affects more than 2.3 million people worldwide.

The society’s mission is to enable people affected by multiple sclerosis to live their best lives, restore what has been lost and end MS forever. Since its inception, the society has invested more than $900 million to advance MS research and is recognized as the catalyst for all major advancements in MS. Each year, through its comprehensive nationwide network of services, the society also helps more than 1 million individuals affected by MS connect to the people, information and resources needed to live their best lives.

Just some of the opportunities you will find are:

 

• Register for Walk MS. Walk MS is the rallying point of the MS Movement and the 2016 season kicks off this week. Each year, more than 315,000 people participate in nearly 550 events taking place across the country. Walk MS brings the community together to be inspired and raise critical funds for research and services to change the world for everyone affected by the disease. Visit walkMS.org to learn more and register.

 

• Inspire and be inspired on social media. View and share images, videos, and stories as you learn about the solutions that have been discovered to overcome the challenges of MS with the hashtag #WeAreStrongerThanMS on the Society’s Facebook, Twitter (@mssociety) and Instagram (@mssociety).

 

• Watch the new ‘What is MS’ Video— The society has created a new video as a resource for people living with MS and anyone who wants to learn more about MS, including healthcare professionals and media who wish to deepen public awareness and understanding about the disease. The new 3D animation video can be viewed at: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS

 

You can also participate in our new MS Awareness Public Service Campaign:

 

• New Public Awareness Campaign—A new multi-channel public service awareness campaign Together We Are Stronger features people impacted by MS and how their fierce resolve has developed solutions that unite us and make us stronger than MS. Stories include surf legend Steve Bettis and his longtime friend and pro-surfer Robert “Wingnut” Weaver, both living with MS, one who uses a wheelchair and the other able to surf, yet riding a wave together through the latest virtual reality technology.

 

• New Website—Visit WeAreStrongerThanMS.org, a single dedicated location where you can find diverse, innovative solutions to overcoming the challenges of multiple sclerosis. These solutions will offer strength and inspiration through collective experiences that demonstrate how together we are stronger than MS. Join Shemar Moore from TV’s Criminal Minds, extreme sports enthusiast Wendy Booker, and others, this week and throughout the year in sharing your powerful story and solutions with the MS community in videos, pictures and words.  

 

This week and throughout the month, the Greater Carolinas Chapter of the National MS Society will circulate public service announcements on MS awareness, build local press coverage, send thank you notes in person to key participants in the movement throughout the Carolinas, in addition to March’s programs and events like Everyday Matters, Symptom Management and Coping Strategies, the annual African-American conference, and a fundraising luncheon.

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 vary from person to person and range from numbness and tingling, to walking difficulties, fatigue, dizziness, pain, depression, 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 move closer to a world free of MS, the society invested $54 million to support more than 380 new and ongoing research projects around the world. Learn more at www.nationalMSsociety.org.