MS Walk Saturday at West City Park

Walk MS, the signature fundraising event of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, is returning to Dexter this Saturday, Sept. 28 at West City Park. The local walk is one of two this weekend, with the second covering the Southern Illinois region.

The Dexter event now serves the entire Bootheel and is expected to draw a significant number of visitors to the area to participate.

Walk MS is the rallying point of the MS Movement. The Saturday event will, once again, bring together neighbors, families, and friends who care about the people living with MS in our communities.

Tamara Terry of Dexter had for many years headed up the local MS Walk. Terry is a victim of MS, having been diagnosed in 1992 following years of related symptoms.

Terry saw of number of physicians over the years who, given her symptoms of weakness, sporadic immobility and fatigue, suspected everything from lupus to muscular dystrophy.

"I had been told by so many physicians that I had so many different things and I'd been prescribed so many different medications for over nine years, that it truly was a relief to finally know what it was I had,"she said of her MS diagnosis.

This year marks the 19th year that Tamara Terry and a group of her supporters will walk for MS in hopes of raising funds that will someday result in finding a cure.

"You learn to play with what you have," she says with a smile, and adds, "I am blessed, truly I am."

The public is invited to join Terry and a host of walkers from all across the Bootheel Saturday at West City Park. Registration begins at 4 p.m. with the walk commencing at 5 p.m. Saturday.

The Gateway Chapter

Last year, more than 6,000 people in the Gateway Area Chapter participated in Walk MS -- raising more than $800,000 to fund MS research and programs and services to help people with MS stay active, connect with others, and move forward in their lives.For more information about Walk MS, please visit www.gatewayMSwalk.org or call 1-800-344-4867.

About Multiple Scleroiple sclerosis, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system, interrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and 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, but advances in research and treatment are 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 6,900 individuals here in the Gateway Area Chapter and more than 2.1 million people worldwide.

About the National Multiple Sclerosis Society

The National MS Society addresses the challenges of each person affected by MS. To fulfill this mission, the Society funds cutting-edge research, drives change through advocacy, facilitates professional education, collaborates with MS organizations around the world, and provides programs and services designed to help people with MS and their families move forward with their lives. In 2012 alone, the Society invested $43 million to support 350 research projects around the world while providing programs and services that assisted more than one million people. The Society is dedicated to achieving a world free of MS. Join the movement at www.nationalMSsociety.org. You may also contact your local Gateway Area Chapter at www.gatewayMSsociety.org or 314-781-9020.