Walk is personal for Ann Eggers and Robin White.
By Barbara Ann Horton
DAR News Editor
Ann Eggers of Poplar Bluff and Robin White of Jackson have a personal
interest in the success of the Multiple Sclerosis Walk Saturday at Hendrickson
Park.
They both have multiple sclerosis, a chronic often disabling disease of the
central nervous system. There is no known cure or cause for the disease.
This will be the fourth annual walk to be held locally and it is the second
year Eggers has served as event chairman. She was diagnosed with MS four years
ago.
In addition to raising funds, the walk will serve to make it possible for
more people with MS to use one of the new drugs, Avonex, Betaseron and Copaxone.
It also will be a way to recruit signatures on a petition for more federal
funding for MS research so eventually there will be a cure.
Both Eggers and White have relapsing, remitting MS, which they agree if you
have to have the disease theirs "is the best" type to have.
While Eggers is on the medication to slow the disease, White doesn’t
respond to the drugs.
Taking one of these drugs when diagnosed with a relapsing form of MS, which
is the most common form of the disease, may postpone or prevent future
disability, reduce the development of brain lesions, which occur even when
people feel well; and reduce the severity and frequency of attacks.
MS is not contagious, said White, who is an MS volunteer tele-friend, support
group co-leader and regional walk chairperson. She takes care of all the
fund-raising efforts in the Cape Girardeau area.
MS is a disease that can cause a wide variety of physical symptoms, White
said.
The symptoms of multiple sclerosis are highly individual and vary in both
severity and duration. The may include: extreme fatigue, impaired vision, loss
of balance and muscle coordination, slurred speech, tremors, stiffness, bladder
and bowel problems, difficulties with gait and, in the most severe cases,
partial or complete paralysis.
Twice as many women as men develop MS. About two-thirds of those people who
have multiple sclerosis experience their first symptoms between the ages of 20
and 40.
The women said that while participating in the walk will help raise funds for
research, a portion of the money will go to help MS patients live independently
and provide educational programs for MS sufferers and their families.
Eggers said there is a local support group that meets at the First Christian
Church the second Sunday of each month.
All the programs provided by the Gateway Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis
Society are available to people in this area.
People who are on the mailing list will be informed about the programs and
when they will be held at the Poplar Bluff Library or at the Greater Poplar
Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce, Eggers said.
Eggers said Leroy Patterson and Debbie Thatcher are working on the committee
to put together the local walk.
Anyone who wants may register by logging on to the website, which is
www.poplarblufmswalk.org, or by calling 785-9553.
"We would like for people to register as soon as possible, since we will
provide lunch for the pledged walkers," Eggers said. "We would like to
know how many we will be preparing food for."
Walkers may begin signing up at 10 a.m. and the two-mile walk will begin at
11 a.m.
White added a person not preregistered can still come out the day of the
walk.
"Walkers who bring in a certain amount of money will get instant
gratification," Eggers said.
Those who raise $110 that day get a walk T-shirt and those bringing in $200
will get a wind shirt.
