MS victim aniticpates fundraiser walk

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March 12, 2010

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Fri Mar 12, 2010, 09:28 PM CST

By Andra Bryan Stefanoni

news@joplinglobe.com

PITTSBURG, Kan. — Gina Peak is not the type of person to sit around and wait for others to do things for her.

So when her doctor diagnosed the symptoms she’d been experiencing as multiple sclerosis, she decided to ignore the long-held notion that those with MS should not exercise.

“I’ve met a lot of people who were diagnosed long ago and were told, ‘Whatever you do, don’t exercise. Just go home, there’s nothing you can do,’” she said. “I can do whatever I want to do. And one of the best things I decided I could do was volunteer.”

That was in April 2004, the week of the annual Walk MS fundraiser held at McClelland Park in Joplin.

Peak, then 43, formed a team comprised of friends with whom she went to high school. Since then, they have walked each year. The past two years they have raised the most money of all teams. But Peak declines to say just how many thousands of dollars that is.

What’s important, she said, is encouraging others to do the same.

“Anyone can come out and walk as an individual, can come out as a family — they don’t even have to be on a formal team,” she said. “Just get some people to support you with donations, and show up that day and walk.”

Last year, 75 walkers from across the Four-State Area raised almost $25,000, approximately 30 percent of which the MS Society of the Ozarks office in Springfield sends to the national agency for research, according to Debbie Mellentine, director.

This year, the Joplin event will be held April 24. It is one of six annual walks in the Ozark region, which combined raise $135,000 annually.

“That’s vitally important because there is no known cause or cure for the disease yet,” Melletine said. “Just to show the importance of that funding, on the fast track right now with the (Food and Drug Administration) is the first oral medication that alters the course of the disease, which may be available this year. That’s extremely exciting to us and people with MS.”

The remaining 70 percent raised from the walk remains local to provide services to people with MS and their families, including financial assistance, home adaptations, a medical equipment loan closet, educational programming and resources.

“Our goal is to keep people with MS as independent as possible within their own homes,” said Mellentine, whose mother had MS.

Peak has been able to maintain a level of independence because her symptoms have not become severe.

“That’s a big part of the frustration: It’s often a hidden disease. I guarantee that I look no different than I did 10 years ago,” she said. “I do get more tired, have more fatigue than I think is normal, so I can’t push myself.”

But Peak does make it a point to join hundreds of others, many of whom, like her, have MS, to participate in the Heartland Border Walk, a three-day, 50-mile walk in Olathe, Kan., in June. She also gets involved in the annual MS 150 bicycle-ride fundraiser.

“I think all of us with MS would agree that it’s better to feel like you’re doing something about it, that you’re making a difference,” she said.

To register for Walk MS or for more information, call 1-800-FIGHTMS or visit msmidamerica.org.

By the numbers

This week is national Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week. MS is a progressive neurological disease that has no known cause or cure. It is the leading non-trauma cause of disability in young adults, and usually is diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50 in more women than men. More than 400,000 people have it. Each hour someone new is diagnosed.

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MS victim aniticpates fundraiser walk

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr wants the city to distribute weather radios to all Joplin homes that don’t have one. That’s 11,000 radios. Do you think that’s a good use of $300,440?

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