By Meredith Gardner
meredith.gardner@theindependent.com

The local MS support group has organized walk on Saturday to raise awareness and money for MS research. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is in its 50th year of sponsoring such walks around the country.

Grand Island's MS Walk will begin with registration and check-in at 8:30 a.m. Friday at Barr Middle School.

The three-mile route will follow the hike-and-bike trail down Blaine Street and back to Barr Middle School. Food, music and entertainment will be provided.

There is no set registration fee for this event, said Jayne Decker, one of the walk's organizers. Participants are encouraged to make a donation, and those who give at least $50 will get a T-shirt. Grand Island's fundraising goal is $20,000, Decker said.

The walk is important to people like Decker, who are hopeful research will one day be able to cure their MS for good.

"For research to happen, we need the funds," Decker said.

MS is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. The progression and severity of MS varies from person to person. Some experience only mild symptoms, such as numbness in the limbs. For others, MS has an extreme impact on their day-to-day living, as it can cause paralysis or loss of vision.

Most people with MS have a normal or near-normal life expectancy, and the majority of people with MS do not become severely disabled.

There are about 400,000 people with MS in the United States today; 200 more are diagnosed with the disease every week. MS is two to three times more common in women than men, according to the National MS Society. It is not contagious or directly inherited.

For Decker, who was diagnosed with MS in 1983, medical advancements have made living with the disease easier. Weekly injections slow the progression of the disease and allow her to function more normally. She walks with a cane and said her most active time of day is in the morning; she's exhausted by the afternoon.

Marsha Iske of Grand Island also suffers from fatigue from her MS, which was diagnosed in 1975. She, too, takes weekly injections and medications that alleviate the residual numbness and tingling in her limbs.

"It slows me down considerably, but otherwise I try to lead as normal life as possible," Iske said.

The MS Walk is important, Iske said, to help people become educated on the disease.

"I think that people don't realize that not everyone that has MS is destined for a wheelchair," she said. "Some people have MS and don't even know it because their symptoms are so slight.

"It may diminish the quality of life, but it doesn't diminish the quantity of life. We just make the best of what we have."