Statistically Speaking...

....you are in a room, there are 500 people with you.. You look to the front, to the sides, around you are your friends, team mates, training partners, their friends, their family...

One person in this room will be diagnosed with MS, it can start small, almost insignificant like a finger losing feeling for one or two weeks.. It may be very obvious like the loss of sight in one eye, or violent muscle spasms rocking one side of their body. It will happen between the age of 20 and 40, though it can happen as early as 6 months old, and as late as 60 years old... And older.  MS is unpredictable and often unstable, the worst thing it does to those that have it is it stops people from moving.

Statistically speaking one person in this room will be diagnosed with MS, in our case it was me. I was 24 years old, living in Victoria working the night shift. I had finished for the night, and as I was walking out of work, I felt a strong cramp in my left bicep. It traveled down my arm, then down the side of my body leaving me curled up, in agony in the hallway of my work for what felt like minutes..

Over the next three months I would have more of these sometimes one at a time, sometimes back to back to back. At one point I was strapped to a gurney in the emergency room being poked by doctors for hours, they had no idea of what was going on, and in the end all they could do was to wait till they calmed, and send me home. 

It took many more doctors visits, and tests before they started to figure out what we were looking at. It was November 5th, almost 6 months later when they had a diagnosis. "your MRI is positive for lesions, and your spinal tap shows positive for..." in laymen's terms, 2 out of 3 tests is a positive diagnosis. I was 25 years old, and I had been given a life sentence. 

Now I am off topic, the point here is statistics, (if I am where I plan to be for this talk) we are runners...runners live on statistics, minutes per mile, miles per week, calories and cardio. I needed to break out, after 3 years 40 lbs and a second period of attacks, I decided that I needed to move, I wanted to be fit.. I took control... And went for a run. with the goal of running a 10k I asked for the help of a coach, and was quickly losing weight and adding milage. Today as I speak I have run 3 Half Ironmans, countless Half Marathons, 5 Marathons, and one Ironman. My symptoms have improved immeasurably, and I continue to get faster 4 years later. I do it because it makes me feel free, and I do it because I still can. I also do it because it can help..

2010 was Race4MS, I ran 9 races in 12 months starting with the Montreal Marathon, and finishing with Ironman Canada. I raised $3500.00 and connected with hundreds of people who have a connection to MS. 

I do this because of what I see, MS stops people from moving, I hope to prove that it will not stop me.

Statistically speaking, one person can have an impact...can make a difference even if only a small one. 

Help me this year, I am running the Scotia Half Marathon on June 26th for TeamMS, how many people will run it with me? 

Can you help me make a difference?

Ray