Mayor Bill Haslam presented a proclamation to representatives of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Mid South Chapter Monday declaring March 2-8, as MS Awareness Week in Knoxville.

Representing the National MS Society were Deanna Jones, director of East Tennessee Client Programs and Services for the Mid South Chapter; A.D. Baxter, who is with Cole Neuroscience Center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center and is the leader of a local MS self-help group; Vicki Bass, also the leader of local MS self-help group, and Rita Haddad, the coordinator of the MS Walk in Knoxville.

Multiple Sclerosis is an unpredictable and often disabling disease that interrupts the flow of information between the brain and body. The symptoms can be as mild as a tingling sensation or numbness or as severe as paralysis. MS is estimated to affect about 2.5 million people worldwide and about 400,000 in the United States.

The National MS Society - and its Mid South Chapter which is making a difference in the lives of 7,200 Tennesseans with MS - is devoted to providing programs that help people who are living with this disease and with supporting research aimed at ending it.

MS Awareness Week is designed to raise awareness of MS, the progress being made in the fight against it and things everyone can do to support that effort ranging from downloading web banners for social network pages to volunteering at MS events or forming a team for Bike MS or Walk MS.

More information about MS Awareness Week is available at www.nationalMSsociety.org.

For more information about the activities of the Mid South Chapter here in East Tennessee please contact [email protected].