Walking Sunday morning for multiple sclerosis in San Francisco

In April 2016, at age 32, San Francisco resident Copeland McKinley was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that interrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and body.

“It was 18 days after I was diagnosed that I went to my first Walk MS event,” McKinley said. “I didn’t know what to expect, but I found myself with thousands of people, some who have MS and some who didn’t want anybody to know they have MS. It was a great experience. Now I know that I’ll be okay, even with this crazy disease. One day I’m fine, the next day I’m not.”

MS, the most common neurological disease leading to disability in young adults, is typically diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, although an estimated 8,000-to-10,000 children under the age of 18 also live with MS. Two to three times more women than men have been diagnosed with MS. An estimated 2.3 million people live with MS worldwide. MS symptoms can range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis, as well as blurred vision, loss of balance, poor coordination, slurred speech, tremors, numbness, extreme fatigue and cognitive deficits. Symptoms might be permanent, or they might come and go.

McKinley has been named by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as 2017 Ambassador for this weekend’s Walk MS on Sunday morning, April 30, at Justin Herman Plaza, at Steuart and Market streets, San Francisco. Registration begins at 8 a.m. On-site registration will be available. The walk begins at 9 a.m. The Walk route includes a choice of one mile or three miles along the Embarcadero Center area. Both routes are 100 percent accessible and offer snacks and water at stationary rest stops. More than 1,300 people are expected to raise about $300,000 for multiple sclerosis research and programs for people with MS.

Admission is free to attend Walk MS. Event information is available at www.WalkMS.org. Walkers will have the opportunity to earn prizes, including t-shirts, movie tickets and gift cards, based on the amount of donations they collect.

Since 1988, Walk MS has been known for drawing a large number of teams representing businesses, neighborhoods, clubs, community groups, churches and family members and friends of a person with MS. Many teams come up with a team name and outfit their members with costumes, including T-shirts, hats or balloons.

The fundraiser is presented locally by Biogen. The National MS Society’s national Walk MS sponsors include Genentech, Novartis and Sanofi Genzyme.