After sharing a personal story about my mom and Multiple Sclerosis not too long ago, I thought it would be fitting to share an excellent email that I recently received from World MS Day.
Multiple Sclerosis (or MS) is an inflammatory disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. It often results in disruptions to the nervous system as it tries to communicate throughout the body. MS affects approximately 2.5 million people around the world.
World MS Day is May 28 and in celebration and support of it the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation has created the “My Wish One Day” campaign.
It is a beautiful digital project that is a great example of how easy it can be to involve your supporters in your work by asking them to share their story. Or in this case their wish.
I learned about the campaign through one of their emails. The email invites you to share your “one day” wish. This is a vision for the future; a world without MS.
They’ve also created a microsite for this campaign, where you can enter your one day wish. You can bet that I entered mine. It was: “One day there will be a cure for MS and my mom will have her vision back intact.”
On May 28 they will be releasing the digital wish wall where they will share everyone’s submission.
Asking people to share their stories and their wishes about a shared experience is an empowering act. With a health care issue like MS, it is easy to feel powerless in the wake of there not being a cure for it. Yet, this project brings people together and gives them hope. It connects them to other people going through a similar experience to show them that they are not alone. It is a way to take the organization out of the spotlight, to shine it on the people who are directly affected. These are the people who make up the fabric of the MS community.
