This coming Tuesday (the 30th of May) is World MS Day.
Armidale District MS branch members have been on-site at the Uralla Street Stall all week and will be there today between 9:00 am and 3:30 pm to raise funds to support local people living with Multiple Sclerosis. They will be raffling a load of firewood and offering for sale a number of books, bric-a-brac, jars of homemade preservatives, and other delicious items.
To mark its 50th anniversary year, MS Australia recently commissioned a ‘What is MS’ educational video resource in an effort to demystify and explain a complex, and often at times, invisible disease that now impacts more than 33,000 Australians. Incidences of MS diagnosis are on the rise in Australia. The video is an educational resource for the general public as well as people living with MS, especially those recently diagnosed, about the causes, different types of MS and common symptoms of a disease that, as of now, has no cure.
World MS Day activities take place throughout the month of May and in early June. It’s a day to consider and acknowledge the challenging social barriers and stigma that can leave people affected by MS feeling lonely and isolated. It’s a day for building communities that support and nurture people affected by MS and for promoting self-care and healthy living with MS.
Armidale MS branch vice president Ruth Jackson was diagnosed with MS at 57 years of age, she is now in her eighties and remembers the early days of the Armidale branch.
“We used to meet for coffee in the mall. Our support group was only very small at the time but we needed somewhere a little more insulated,’ she says with a chuckle”.
“I noticed Richard Torbay, who was the Tablelands member at the time, strolling past and I raced after him. He was with the Major and I asked the two of them if they perhaps knew of a suitable place where we could organise, and from then on ever since, we have met at the Bowling Club.”
On every second Wednesday of the month, MS support group meetings are held by the Armidale branch at the Armidale City Bowling Club. Everyone is welcome including family, friends, carers and supporters of people with MS.
“While it’s called the ‘Armidale branch’, our group actually encompasses all of New England.”
” If you’re in Armidale, Inverell, or Glen Innes and you are living with MS or knows someone who is living with MS, please get in touch with us, we are here to help,” Ruth said,
You can visit the Armidale MS branch Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/MSArmidale/
Or you can email them on: armidalemsbranch@outlook.com
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