Going the Extra Mile for MS Victims

Every year, when Janice Stewart rallies volunteers for the 5- and 15- kilometer MS Walks, the memories intrude.

The nagging thoughts remind Stewart of why she helps with the fund-raising event and make her thank God that she can.

One morning in November, 1986, Stewart woke up. But the left side of her body didn’t.

She rose, dressed and went to work anyway, trying to ignore the paralysis, figuring it would work itself out.

It didn’t. Twenty-eight days later she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

She would spend two years with painful, distressing symptoms that would appear, then disappear. She lost her sight for eight weeks. At different times, she lost the use of each hand, sometimes both. She learned the feel of a wheelchair.

“I couldn’t spell MS. I didn’t know what it was,” Stewart said. “I thought I was going to be one of Jerry’s kids. I had absolutely no idea what I was confronting.”

Reluctant at first to admit her condition, Stewart called the MS society and said, “I’m calling for a friend who has MS.”

The woman on the other end of the line encouraged her to have her “friend” call herself.

“That was a crucial day in my life. I admitted I had MS,” Stewart said. “Through the MS society, I learned the difference between having MS and learning to live with MS.”

Stewart still has symptom-burdened days. A finger will go numb, or a leg. Fatigue sometimes sets in. She keeps a walker and a cane.

She is out of the wheelchair, though she keeps photos to remind her.

She returned to work at First Interstate Bank, where she is assistant vice president and financial services manager, in the fall of 1988, with her MS in remission.

For four years, she has rallied participants and volunteers for the MS Walk, which last year raised $620,000 in Southern California. The fund-raiser started in 1989 in Pasadena. Now walks are also held in Long Beach, Redlands, Riverside, Santa Monica and Woodland Hills.

About 8,000 walkers are expected to file into those six locales, with 1,000 at Woodland Hills, said Todd Vradenburg, development associate with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Of the money participants raise through pledges, 40% goes toward research programs, 10% covers expenses for the walk, and 50% goes to 100 service programs that aid MS victims and their families.

Volunteers are needed to help with registration, set up food booths, greet and hand out food to the walkers and congratulate them at the finish.

The walk is not a race, Vradenburg stressed, and everyone is welcome to participate. About 80% of the walkers know someone who has MS, he said.

“MS is such a helpless disease,” he said. “For family members and friends it’s a great way of showing their support by going out and walking.”

And it’s a chance for people like Stewart to show her thanks.

“I was given so much, I didn’t know what I could do,” she said.

Stewart hopes that the walk will enlighten people about the chronic disease of the brain and spinal cord and that it will enable MS victims to reach out to the MS society as she did.

“I’m not alone. The MS society is always there,” she said. “I can always pick up the phone and call. I’ve called late at night and there was always someone there to listen, to understand, to give support.”

For information about volunteering or walking, call (800) 458-WALK.

Other volunteering opportunities:

Glendale Memorial Hospital is looking for volunteers. Call the hospital at (818) 502-2359.

Family Service Agency of Burbank is looking for volunteers to assist in a case management program for frail elders who wish to remain at home. Training and supervision will be provided. Contact Nell at (818) 845-7671.

Getting Involved is a weekly listing of volunteering opportunities.