MS Fact Sheet

What is multiple sclerosis?

• MS is the #1 disabler of young adults in the United States.
• Over 400,000 Americans have been diagnosed with MS.
• Over 11,800 individuals diagnosed with MS live in Upstate New York.
• An unpredictable disease that attacks the central nervous system.
• Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 50.
• Symptoms range from mild numbness in the limbs to the severities of paralysis or blindness.
• The cause of MS is unknown and researchers are working to find a cure.

MS stops people from moving. The National MS Society exists to make sure it doesn't.

We help each person address the challenges of living with MS through our 50 state network of chapters. We fund more MS research, provide more services to people with MS, offer more professional education and further more advocacy efforts than any other MS organization in the world. The Society is dedicated to achieving a world free of MS. Join the movement.

Locally, the Upstate New York Chapter serves 11,800 people living with MS in our 50 county Chapter territory. The money you raise supports national research, some of which is conducted in our Upstate New York Chapter cities including Albany, Potsdam, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo.

Here are some other examples of what the money you raise can do….

• $100 raised provides - Shower chairs, grab bars, kitchen carts, computer screen magnifier, transfer boards.
• $250 raised provides - Air conditioners, walkers, incontinence supplies, emergency call system, laptop wheelchair desk, accessible transportation for infusion for four months.
• $500 raised provides - Portable ramps, dialog hands-free telephone, uplift seat assist, chair lift.
• $1,000 raised provides - Stationary ramps, voice-activated computer, headmaster mouse and keyboard, computer speech recognition software.

Read and share stories about the personal experiences of people living with MS…… http://www.faceofms.org/

• Learn more about MS here
• Do you want to be an activist for MS? Click here
• What’s new in research? Find out here.

Where Your Investment Goes

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society supports more MS research, offers more services for people with MS, provides more professional education programs and furthers more MS advocacy efforts than any other MS organization in the world. A percentage of funds collected is dedicated to support MS research worldwide and specifically to research conducted in Albany, Potsdam, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo, New York.