What does Living with MS mean to you?

There are just 7 days to go until we launch the 2012 World MS Day Campaign!

This year the theme for World MS Day is Living with MS. Every individuals’ experience of MS is different. Not only are there more than 2 million people around the world living with MS, there are many more affected by the disease. Family members, friends and neighbors often act as carers for their loved ones, meaning the social impact of MS reaches much further than the people who are directly affected.

You might be a person living with MS, a carer, a friend, a family member, a medical professional, or even a staff member at an MS organisation, you all have something to say about what living with MS means to you.

With this in mind we asked the 3,000 people who came through the MS life doors (a lifestyle event held in Manchester, UK) this year, to create a postcard that answered the question, What does living with MS mean to you?

We were surprised by the variety of different answers and inspired by the strong spirit of everyone that we spoke to. Key themes running through all of the postcards were a sense of loss, a sense of empowerment through the strength of others, the opportunities to meet new and inspiring people and the importance of the love and support that people with MS find in their friends and families.

We had postcards from people of all ages. Daniel, age 4, whose mother is living with MS said, Don’t worry, be happy, whilst 82 year old Alma who visited the stand with her husband of 27 years said that, ‘Living with MS is frustrating when one can’t do what you would like to do anymore’.

We have uploaded some of the postcards in the gallery below. We hope you feel inspired to create your own postcard….there will be something very special to do with it from the 9th of May!