April 13: Walk MS

The Alabama-Mississippi Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society is preparing for Walk MS in Birmingham on Saturday, April 13, 2013 in Homewood Central Park. Check-in opens at 7:30 a.m., and the walk begins at 9:30 a.m. The walk will go on rain or shine.

Hafiz Chandiwala, CFO/Vice-President of Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Inc., and the 2013 Birmingham Walk MS Chair, is encouraging everyone to Join the Movement®. “Our goal is to raise $205,000 at our Birmingham Walk MS and to also raise awareness of MS by having more than a thousand participants on Walk day.”

The funds raised during the walk will help support services for the more than 4200 people living with MS in Alabama and fund research projects at UAB to find a cure for this chronic disease of the central nervous system.

Birmingham Walk MS will offer a 1, 2, or 3-mile route option for all participants. Walk MS is an event that gathers those in the community who care about MS, but it also supports research and helps people with MS move their lives forward. The walk will also feature refreshments, awards, announcements and entertainment.

Multiple Sclerosis is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that interrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. 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.