OBSERVER Photo by Damian Sebouhian Registered participants begin the Walk MS trek into downtown Fredonia.

Undeterred by the unseasonably chilly weather, the local chapter of National Multiple Sclerosis Society held its annual Walk MS event Sunday at Fredonia’s Russell Joy park, as supporters arrived in droves to help bring funds and awareness to a devastating disease that impacts more than 2.3 million people worldwide.

“Every year we have our Fredonia Walk,” said organizer Christy Field. “We raise around $15,000 (locally) and around $1.3 million across the state.”

Field, who has been working with the MS Society for the past seven years, said that Walk MS represents the largest fundraising event of the year and is essential in raising money toward research, programs and services for people living with the degenerative disease.

“There are 14 FDA-approved medications and we don’t really back any one specific way of medicating or dealing with MS, we just make sure there are different options,” Field said. “We’re basically gunning for the cure to come around soon.”

The National MS Society was established in 1988. Last year, more than 300,000 walkers in roughly 500 locations participated in Walk MS, helping to raise nearly $50 million nationwide.

According to walkMS.org, “92 percent of participants have a connection to MS.”

Beads were given away to sufferers of MS, with each bead representing “every year that a person has been living with MS,” Field said.

MS was first described in 1868 by professor Jean-Martin Charcot, who has been called “the father of neurology.”

According to the National MS Society, “MS is one of the most common diseases of the nervous system, affecting people of almost all ages in many parts of the world, although it has a special preference for young people, for women, and for those in northern latitudes. MS has a genetic susceptibility, but it is not directly inherited. It usually causes attacks of neurologic symptoms including vision loss, paralysis, numbness, and walking difficulties.”

With the help of people like Christy Field, those suffering from MS have hope and support.

“I like everything about my job,” Field said. “I like seeing friends and families who are affected by MS being able to get services and being able to have information that they didn’t have before so they can feel better about their diagnosis. I love meeting team captains and meeting people who live in the community that the MS society helps.”

Tim Hortons and Panera donated food for the event. P&G Foods cooked hotdogs. Businesses that contributed to the raffle included Fredonia Food Mart & Deli, Liberty Cafe, Blasdell Pizza, Inner Balance Day Spa, Jenna’s 4th Street Cafe, Valu, Pizza Village, Lena’s Pizza, KFC, DeJohn’s Italian Spaghetti House and Dunkirk Movieplex 8.

PHOTOS:

3884: Christy Field holds an MS awareness t-shirt and poses with a team of youth volunteers.

3891: A volunteer cuts the Walk MS banner, signifying the start of the walk.

3893:

3896-3900: Walk MS participants head downtown in a show of support to bring awareness and funds to help bring a cure to MS.