PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: Despite having Multiple Sclerosis, Jacob Bell is still able to play with his two-year-old daughter, Mackenzie.


Bell is an MS Ambassador, and is doing what he can to raise awareness of the disease. The active 30-year-old and father of a young daughter can't get overheated or stressed. And indulging in some of his favorite activities such as boating on the lake can trigger symptoms.Some days I'll pay for it,The worst a person with MS can do is worry themselves sick said Bell."

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros:.Weizmann scientist discusses "miracle" MS drug:
"...relentless research in multiple sclerosis (MS), spanning three decades, that led to the development of a 'wonder' drug called Copaxone,""These things don't happen overnight," Arnon said, as she tracked the development of Copaxone from the inception of research in the late 1960s to the first trial results in 1971 to the drug's approval by the FDA in 1996.

"It took 29 years from beginning to end. Not at all unusual," she said matter-of-factly.

According to Dr. David Papermaster, the Solomon Professor of Neuroscience at UCONN Medical Center, who was at the luncheon, the drug was well worth the wait.

"Without a doubt, the most effective drug fighting MS has come out of the Weizmann Institute," he said.

Though Papermaster was quick to point out that MS does not fall within his particular area of medical expertise, those within whose professional purview it does fall were unequivocal in backing up his claim.

"Copaxone is having fantastic results," said Lisa Gerrol, executive director of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Hartford Chapter......MORE

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: Country & Western Artist Amy Clawson:
"...In the past year, Clawson said she spent time recording her upcoming album, 'Cowboy Up!' While most of the songs on the album came from other songwriters, Clawson said longtime fans might notice a change in her image and style.Clawson was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis several years ago, and the experience has left the singer with a newfound maturity.'I've taken a journey in the past four years,' Clawson said. 'In the past, I was always firm with the kind of music I sang and how I presented it. I was confident in my God-given abilities. This has made me try different forms of music, a little bit of blues, soul. And I've always loved gospel music. I've started integrating that more into the country.'The change in her live act is so noticeable that Clawson said her mother recently went to a concert in California and was unnerved by what she saw: a more mature and bluesy Clawson......MORE"

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: Junior Caregivers of both Parents Are A Lesson In Selflessness:
"Tracy Reece was diagnosed with MS three years ago. His wife, Christy, was diagnosed with Lupus four years ago. She also has Asthma and Fibromyalgia. It comes as no surprise that their boys, Drake and Taylor, have become very familiar with the various symptoms of these auto-immune conditions. They accompany their parents to the doctor's office and are very interested in learning all they can about their parent's health issues. They help them with their medications, do chores, and even tuck themselves in bed, if needed! They both love to do things to help other people with disabilities...."

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: "MS not halting this mom"
"Raising a baby and a toddler can be exhausting and stressful. But imagine having two kids younger than age 3 and hearing a doctor say, "You have MS." When Beth Stump got those words at age 34, she was angry. It was horrible, she said of learning her diagnosis. But she knew she had to take care of herself so she could care for her kids, and she decided the disease wasn't going to stop her...That was 20 years ago..."

Dean Singleton: Newspaper Mogul received a diagnosis of MS in 1986 - New York Times
"...His company, the privately held MediaNews based in Denver, owns 55 dailies including The Denver Post, The Detroit News, The Daily News of Los Angeles and The Berkshire Eagle, plus more than 100 nondailies. With the addition of the Knight Ridder papers — The San Jose Mercury News, The Contra Costa Times and The Monterey County Herald, all in California, and The St. Paul Pioneer Press — MediaNews has become the nation's fourth-biggest newspaper company, up from seventh...."

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: 82-year old Genny Turnham walked the entire 50 miles for her sister in a three day MS fundraising walk to San Diego.

Perseverance..... Heros: With caustic wit, Teri Garr copes with MS: "...I'm on one of the interferons myself. I very much wish I had gotten on Rebiff sooner, Garr said. You
just go ahead and try to do what you can with what you've got...."

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: slowed by years of hard work and MS, Harold and his wife Jeanette raise exotic animals instead of cows:
"Humphries the dromedary investigates a camera at Harold and Jeanette Peterson’s exotic animal farm"

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: Mountaineer credits MS for passion to hit peaks:
The 33-year-old is an outdoor- sports fanatic and takes every opportunity to climb, ski and bike. He teaches art and climbing to teens at Colorado Timberline Academy, a boarding school in the north Animas Valley, so he actually gets paid to do the things he loves.

But what has made his life full, he says, was the diagnosis at age 24 of MS.

'For me, it's been a gift,' he says. 'I just have this motivation. I can't sit back and let a good day go by. "I went through denial when I got the diagnosis. I didn't want to believe it," he says....."

HERO'S - PERSEVERANCE: Dad's MS spurred teen to launch research project & attend Harvard:
"Lev Shaket, 17, who will attend Harvard University this fall, began doing research on MS with scientists at Emory and Georgia State universities three years ago, after learning that his father had the disease...This fall he's heading to Harvard University. His scholarship includes free tuition. But all that's secondary to helping his father. "I just look at it in terms of positive side effects," he said of his father's illness. "That it launched my career and that it made me try to treat [MS] and cure it." The Shaket family includes 17-year-old Lev and parents Alexander and Janna. In 1990, they came to the United States from St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), Russia; Lev was 2 years old. When Lev was an eighth-grader, in 2000, Alexander Shaket was diagnosed with MS. He eventually stopped working at a paper mill.

Immediately after learning of his father's MS, Lev began reading voraciously online about the disease. Soon he was writing e-mails to neurological researchers at Emory, expressing his wish to do research with them. He left out the detail about his fatherYue Feng, an Emory professor with a doctorate in cellular biology, took him under her wing, first curious and then impressed by the ambitious 10th-grader. "He'd come in after 4 o'clock and stay as late as possible," she said."......"

Perseverance/True Heros:

"FACE OF MS": Kristin Bennett - "I was diagnosed in 2001, it was my junior year at Parsons School of Design. Anyway, I started out with a lot of denial, plus I was a full-time working student in NYC! I didn't have time for that "MS" stuff. I focused on school and work and had a really hard time taking avonex, it would depress and upset me more and more each day leading up to the 'injection' day. So I stopped taking it about 6 months after I started....I did a lot of research about excercise, diet, stress reduction and keeping a positive attitude that really helped me a lot and for awhile I believe I had it pretty well under control. I graduated from Parsons on time in 2003 at age 22...That summer though I started getting 'prickly' feelings. I started taking Copaxone that fall and still do. Since late 2004, I have had a baby, and I am still taking copaxone and am getting back on my pretty strict excercise program. My baby girl is healthy and I have breastfed her exclusively for 6 months.

Most people who know me don't know I have MS. Whenever the topic comes up I do bring it up if it seems like an appropriate time but I don't really bring it up on my own otherwise. I've noticed too that I do so much and stay so busy with my paintings, business, baby, errands etc. that people don't seem to remember that little detail that is a part of who I am.

That little detail is exactly how I want it to be. I am very dedicated to taking my medicine and treating myself with respect by eating well and excercising well."

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: Ian Altman - On the trail of MS: "When I was 24, I found out I might have MS, Altman said. "One of the first things I did was get in touch with Jimmy Heuga, and he gave me a lot of great ideas on how to deal with the disease." The Heuga Centers approach to treatment focuses on healthy living and fitness, as well as positive mental attitude in keeping the disease and its symptoms at bay. In 2002, Altman attended the Heuga Center's Can Do program, where he said he learned how to manage his disease, maintain his health and emotional well-being, and most importantly, focus on what he could do instead of what he could not. Jimmy Heuga subscribes to an active living theory, and he has proven that it works, Altman said.Indeed, some may argue that Altman himself is testament to the approach. With regular cardiovascular exercise coupled with a regimen of the MS drug Copaxone, Altman manages to lead an active outdoor lifestyle that includes biking, skiing and climbing. He also is a member of Team Copaxone, a group of athletes with MS that is sponsored by the drug company. Since being diagnosed, Altman has summited numerous big peaks, everywhere from South America to British Columbia....."

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: "MS can't stop man's need for speed: Meet Robert Burgin: drag racer, MS patient"
"At first, it seems hard to reconcile the two realities. Burgin, who was diagnosed with MS more than 12 years ago, spends most weekends strapped into a vehicle with 300 horsepower, drag racing on a narrow strip of pavement at speeds in excess of 150 miles per hour.

Burgin refuses to let his disease slow him down.

"People do find it a bit strange, a guy with MS out there drag racing," he said. "But as long as I am healthy enough to do it, I'm going to keep racing........."

Real Heros: University to honor Harry Potter author's MS work
....Rowling, 40, whose mother Anne died of MS at the age of 45 in 1990, has also given her backing to research in universities to try to unlock the mysteries of the disease, which affects the central nervous system.....

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: MS does'nt stop Jane Holm from riding in two-day bike tour for 12th year in a row

PERSEVERANCE=Real Heros: "Despite MS, Ms. 'Zippy Wheels' lives up to nickname...."

PERSEVERANCE = Real Heros: "MacLean was diagnosed with MS in September 2003 and has cycled in the tour -- a two-day adventure that includes....":

The Nancy Davis Foundation for MS holds an annual Race to Erase MS gala which raises over $2.7 million in a single evening to fund MS research
Paris Hilton, right, holds a Maltese dog up for auction as host Tom Arnold takes bids from the crowd...Lindsay Lohan, left, and Nicole Richie, right, walk out with fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger after a fashion show featuring '70s-themed designs by Hilfiger at the '13th Annual Race to Erase M.S.' event at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.)
PLUS...live performances by Kool & The Gang, Sister Sledge, Macy Gray and Natalie Cole...

PERSEVERANCE=REAL HEROS: 10-year old's ailment takes back seat to helping others

PERSEVERANCE=REAL HEROS..."MS won't stop probation and parole officer Amy Harriman"
"Amy Harriman doesn't mind talking about what it's like to suffer from MS. She hopes sharing her experiences will help people better understand what is often a misunderstood diseases"......

PERSEVERANCE=HEROS... 'I Hope To See The End Of MS'
""One million dollars is what I'm hoping for."....

PERSEVERANCE - HERO'S: Uphill all the way: MS motivates climber to keep up her activity:
"'Everyone has a mountain to climb,' Maggie Schneider tells fellow sufferers of MS.

For Ms. Schneider herself, that statement is literally true. Mountain climbing is both the activity she refused to permit her disease to force her to give up, and a principal means by which she fights its ravages...." Ms. Schneider, 46, was diagnosed with MS in April 1994...."

PERSEVERANCE - HEROS:
Magno’s MS Express driving toward $1 million for MS:
"Magno was diagnosed with primary-progressive MS in 1995...After five years of dreaming, planning and hard work, Carlo Magno and his dog Katie are ready to climb into his 1955 Autoette Cruise About, and embark on a cross-country effort to raise awareness of MS and to collect $1 million for MS research. "That check is damn near filled out in my head... he said...."