A volunteer at Prince George’s chapter of the MS Society of Canada is receiving gratitude for her years of service.
Sandra Stibrany received the 2018 Community Engagement Award with the BC Branch, recognizing her long hours of organizing the City’s annual MS Walk.
She says more than 50 volunteers are at the Northern chapter, and awareness on the stigma continues to grow.
“We have between 800 and 900 people in Prince George and area that have MS. Nationwide, there are 77,000 Canadians that have MS. We’re always looking to help do a bit of fundraising to try and help promote research looking for a cure for MS, and also to provide programs and services to help people live a better quality of life.”
MS, or Multiple Sclerosis, is a disease of the immune system, mainly affecting the brain.
Stibrany believes those with the stigma are still surviving, but not without a little bit of suffering.
“As the years go by, and you have more and more episodes of attacks, your recovery is lower than it was prior to the attack. So it is a disease that we really need to find a cure for, because without the cure, people will eventually end up disabled from the disease.”
Stibrany accepted the award at MS’ Connect Conference earlier this month.
.@MSSocietyCanada Committee Walk Chair Sandra Stibrany says more than 800 people are diagnosed with MS in PG; despite 1/340 dealing with the disease in Canada, she believes people are living more productive lives | #CityOfPG pic.twitter.com/7G2UFesWBX
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) May 1, 2018