MS SOCIETY CELEBRATES 50TH ANNIVERSARY
(23 April 2003)

It can strike like lightning. One day you're fine, the next you can't see properly or your leg gives way from under you. Multiple sclerosis strikes at random, usually in the prime of life. It is the most common potentially disabling neurological disease affecting young people in the western world. Around 50 are diagnosed in the UK every week.

'Striking back' is the theme the Multiple Sclerosis Society has chosen for its 50th anniversary in 2003. The Society is the UK's largest organisation for people affected by MS and a leading funder of research into its cause and cure. The Society was founded in 1953 by Richard (later Sir Richard) Cave, whose wife, Mary, had MS. The inaugural meeting was at the Chenil Galleries in King's Road, Chelsea on 2 December 1953.

Says current chief executive, Mike O'Donovan, "Like a lightning bolt from the blue, MS is totally unpredictable. You just don't know how it's going to hit you. Some people hardly notice they have it. Some have serious problems with sight, mobility, co-ordination, continence, pain and fatigue which come and go. Others quickly become severely disabled.

"We want to reach out to more people affected by MS than ever before and show them the many ways we can offer support. At the same time we want everyone to understand just what it's like to live with MS and ask them to help us to improve and extend the range of services we can offer."

MS INITIATIVES OVER THE LAST 50 YEARS

Mr O'Donovan highlighted a number of the Society activities and initiatives:

• More than 50 specialist MS nurse posts established and funding now extended to stimulate and develop more MS multi-disciplinary health and social care teams
• Nearly 70 research projects, including five clinical trials, being funded in UK centres including the MS MRI unit at the National Hospital and the MS Tissue Bank; current commitment of more than £11 million
• Evidence-based standards of care developed with the National Hospital for Neurology; now working with the National Institute for Clinical Excellence on clinical guidelines for MS due to be published in June 2003
• People with MS conducting self-management and employment training courses
• Continuing investment in Society respite care centres and the first MS respite care and holiday directory published
• MS Society freephone helpline 0808 800 8000 handling over 15,000 calls a year, taken by trained counsellors, many of whom have MS
• Society website www.mssociety.org.uk voted British Medical Association Patient Information Website 2002. The MS Society also received the top award in the charities category at The Chartered Institute of Marketing/Marketing Week Effectiveness Awards 2002. This award recognises the Society's success in marketing and lobbying campaigning, a new visual identity, its successful fundraising in 2001 and its new interactive website.
• 'Just diagnosed' booklet among an expanding range of publications and fact sheets for people affected by MS and health professionals
• Research with other organisations into the effectiveness of physiotherapy in MS
• Campaigning for equal access to high standards of health and social care including delivery of the Government's 'risk-sharing' scheme for disease-modifying drugs
• Minimum standard of support for local people with MS being introduced across the Society's 370 strong voluntarily-run branch network

Click here for Ten Quick facts about Multiple Sclerosis.

Click here to visit the Multiple Sclerosis Society website

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