ON
MY
MIND
Unstoppable!
Irecently attended our National Conference where the theme was “Unstoppable!” I admit hat over the last couple of years, I haven’t always felt unstoppable.
We’ve been tackling serious objections relating
to the politics of health care reform, our response
to CCSVI and
tough resource
decisions driven
by the lagging
economy.
NSIGHT IMAGING/GETT Y IMAGES
If I had been
in the theme-
creating business I
might have chosen
something more
like “Just Trying
To Put One Foot
in Front of the
Other.”
But in fact,
we are moving
forward. Recent
research results
are translating
into increasingly
effective therapies
for some people
with MS. Real
advocacy advances
are resulting in
systemic improvements for people with chronic
diseases like MS.
Somehow, every time I thought I couldn’t take
another step, someone—often someone entirely
unknown to me—just lifted me up and moved me
ahead. This happened again after the last edition
of Momentum when a stranger named Jon took
the time to write and lift me through that day:
I just fell out of my chair when I read your
comments in the Fall Momentum … that you
have heard from so many others who have this
version of MS, primary progressive.… When
I was diagnosed, my doctor said “You have
primary-progressive MS and you will be in a
chair in 10 years.” I asked about any treatment
or drugs to slow this inevitability. “Well, no,”
he said.
So here I am 14 years later still standing up
and walking a little—with a great electric wheel
chair, a great handicapped van and a can-do
attitude. Joyce Nelson—you keep beating the
bushes for a cure for this version of MS! There
has to be a way to re-grow, protect and reverse
this condition. I have seen the toll this disease
takes on people in their twenties but it is just
as devastating for us in our forties, fifties and
sixties when the diagnostic hammer falls on our
breaking bodies. Thank you so much for your
changing purpose and direction.
Unstoppable? That’s what being a movement
is all about. If Jon won’t be stopped, then neither
will we.
That’s what’s on my mind. What’s on yours?
Joyce Nelson
President & CEO
The National MS Society
900 South Broadway
Denver, CO 80209
joyce@nmss.org
