PEARL, Miss. (WJTV) – An estimated one million people are living with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the United States, and roughly 10,000 to 15,000 are right here in Mississippi.

This month, the Mississippi MS Society is trying to get the word out about the disease and raise some money.

Dr. Scott Crawford has been living with MS for more than 20 years. He first experienced symptoms when he got shingles.

“I knew it wasn’t typical shingles because it was affecting my gait, my ability to walk. I could start walking normally, and then after about 30, 40 or 50 feet, my legs just became lead. I couldn’t lift my right leg. It started to drag and all of a sudden, I got this horrible fatigue like I had just run a marathon and it was oppressive,” he said.

He said he knew it was more than just shingles.

“It’s unlike any kind of fatigue I’d ever experienced before. I knew something was wrong. I went to a neurologist, and they said it was just part of the shingles. I let it go, but I kept having these bouts of profound fatigue that happened every three to four months. By the third one in May of 2000, I was paralyzed from the eyes down.”

It took three years for Crawford to get a diagnosis for MS. That was more than 20 years ago. Today, there are more treatments and faster diagnosis.

Dr. Mary Willis, a MS specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), said, “Someone who’s diagnosed in 2023 with MS is much less likely to be disabled, at least physically disabled, than someone who was diagnosed in, say, 2010. MS involves the immune system’s attack on the nerves. So, the way we treat MS is we use something to affect the immune system to decrease that hyperactive immune system.”

Getting the information about the disease is the goal. That’s why Walk MS Jackson will be held later this month at Trustmark Park.

“This walk is really important because MS is not a rare disorder, but many people in Mississippi don’t know anything about MS. It’s a common cause of neurologic disability, and that disability is preventable if people recognize the symptoms and get treatment.”

Those symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis.

Crawford has been an advocate for MS, traveling all over the country. He said this walk is important to help Mississippians.

“Jackson is our main and most important fundraising benefit here in Mississippi. This is the big one. This is the one where we try to raise as much money as possible to conduct research, stop the disease in its tracks, restore a lost function, and eventually end it forever. It’s a lot of fun,” he said.

The Walk MS Jackson will be held Saturday, April 22 at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The site opens at 8:00 a.m. and the walk begins at 9:00 a.m. WJTV’s Byron Brown will be the emcee for this year’s walk.

If you’d like to register a team or make a donation, visit WalkMS.org.