WESTMINSTER, Colo. — The Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center will join MS organizations, groups and individuals across the country celebrating MS Awareness Month this March. The Rocky Mountain MS Center is a worldwide leader in providing care, support, education and research to people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and their families, based right here in Colorado.
“The Rocky Mountain MS Center is excited to be part of a national effort to raise awareness about MS, which affects approximately 400,000 Americans,” said Rocky Mountain MS Center’s CEO Gina Berg. “More than one in every 550 Coloradans is currently living with MS, yet it remains a largely misunderstood disease because symptoms are often not evident to others. Especially in its early stages, MS can remain an ‘invisible’ condition for many years, while patients and their families live with it every day.”
MS is a progressive and unpredictable disease of the central nervous system that disrupts communication between the brain and other parts of the body. The severity of the disease and its symptoms vary widely from person to person. The cause of MS is unknown and although there are treatments that can slow disease progression, at this time there is no known cure.
“MS is a disease that attacks the brain,” said Dr. Timothy Vollmer, the MS Center’s medical director and co-director of the Rocky Mountain MS Center at the University of Colorado Hospital Anschutz Medical Campus. “The brain is what it is to be human. It encompasses human behavior, human knowledge, culture, everything. As a result, MS can impact what is most human about us.”
“Educating patients, caregivers and the general public is a core aspect of our work at the MS Center,” said Berg. “MS Awareness Month is a time to bring MS front and center in the public’s eye, and help people understand what this disease is and how it may be affecting their friends and neighbors.”
A complete list of MS Awareness Month activities — including ways you can participate, spread the word, volunteer with the MS Center, or donate to the cause — can be found at the MS Center’s website, www.mscenter.org.
About the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center
Founded in 1978, the Rocky Mountain MS Center is a patient- and family-centered nonprofit organization that provides a comprehensive and integrated wellness approach to MS, life-changing support services, and cutting-edge research. MS is a chronic neurological disease that affects an estimated 2.5 million people worldwide. It is the leading cause of irreversible disability in young women and the second leading cause of disability in young men.
Led by Drs. Timothy Vollmer and John Corboy, physicians and researchers at the Rocky Mountain MS Center at Anschutz Medical Campus operate one of the largest clinical research programs in the U.S., and treat patients as young as 18 months as well as underserved patients including veterans, and uninsured and underinsured. The Rocky Mountain MS Center practices a proactive, comprehensive care approach to disease management. In addition to clinical care and research, the MS Center provides an award-winning adult day program, a hydrotherapy program, counseling services, social security disability assessments, and educational programs. For more information, visit www.mscenter.org.
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The Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center is a family- and patient-centered nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the way we think about and treat MS. Our mission is to improve the lives of individuals and their families living with MS and related neurological diseases through care, support, education and research. We are committed to providing innovative, specialized, comprehensive and interdisciplinary care to treat, support and rehabilitate people living with MS.