When Life Hands You Multiple Sclerosis, Get Out and Walk

Yes, I know. It seems like every disease has a fund-raising walk or run. But some of those fund-raisers are more bittersweet than others, and a walk for multiple sclerosis is one of those. MS affects your nervous system, degrading the neurons so that any task requiring muscular coordination is all but impossible. Moreover, it most commonly affects the young, with almost twice the number of women as men affected by the disease.

In that way, a fund-raising walk, like the 2009 Walk MS Portland, is a middle finger from the victims, to a disease that would like to render them disfigured or crippled. Yes, MS is bad, but it's not the sum total of your identity. A press release from from the Oregon chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to WW gave "another side of the story:

“I'm so tired of MS being so negative,” says Sandy [WHO HAS MS]. “Oprah recently did a segment with Montel Williams on MS, and everything he said was true, about the spasms and pain, but every case of MS is so different. I had a ton of people calling me after that, telling me how sorry and unaware they were of the pain I was going through—but that's not my life.”

The 2009 Walk MS Portland will be held on Saturday, April 4, starting at Pioneer Courthouse Square (715 SW Morrison St). Registration opens at 8 am for the 10 am. While registration to walk is free, prize levels start with a minimum donation of $75. For more information, see www.walkMSoregon.com or call 800-344-4867.

Photo courtesy markthehat, Flickr.com