The National MS Society’s vision is a world free of MS. Our mission is to mobilize people and resources to drive research for a cure and to address the challenges of everyone affected by MS.
WHO WE ARE The National Multiple Sclerosis Society started with a simple act of love – a sister trying to help her brother recover from MS. In 1946, Sylvia Lawry gathered 20 of the nation’s most prominent research scientists and founded what would become the National MS Society (incorporated in 1947). Today, through a 50-state network of chapters and a collective of passionate people, the Society educates, inspires and empowers. We seek a world free of MS. The Utah-Southern Idaho Chapter, headquartered in Salt Lake City with an office in Boise, Idaho, serves a diverse urban and rural territory spanning from roughly McCall, Idaho to St. George, Utah.
ABOUT MS Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, unpredictable disease of the central nervous system. MS interrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and the 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. MS stops people from moving. We exist to make sure it doesn’t. • Two to three times more women than men are diagnosed with MS, but in men, the disease often takes a more aggressive course. • MS affects 2.1 million people worldwide. • Our chapter has one of the highest incidence rates in the country. • More than 6,600 people with MS have sought services from our chapter. • It is not known what causes MS. There is no cure, yet! 2 | Annual Report 2012