Fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis again

[etlsport]

Hey VX Fam..

I am doing the City to Shore 75 mile bike ride across New Jersey again this year. Ride is on September 25th.

The event is to raise money for the National MS Society. My goal is to raise $525. My team's goal is 75,000. Any donations are greatly appreciated, even donations of your time, you can sign up to be a volunteer for the event as well. The money raised will go to the 11,000 families in the area affected by MS

You can support me at
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/si...al&fr_id=13251

You can find more info about the event at
http://bikepae.nationalmssociety.org...13251&pg=entry

Even got a new ride for the event!

Thanks guys!!

[VX KAT]

Thank you Thank you Thank you Eric for doing this!!!
They've had some real breakthrough drugs in the past decade that helps slow progression of this disease, all are either injection or IV. Now last month they announced the FDA is getting close to fast-tracking an ORAL pill that's also shown tremendous success at slowing progression!!

A pill vs. shots or IVs is just huge, as some patients can't tolerate the needles and actually give up treatment. Luckily needles and IVs have never bothered me, so I just keep being a pincushion (like all afternoon today), but now, so many more patients will likely get treatment if this pill comes through!!

These treatments are expen$ive beyond belief and this fundraising bike ride can really help a lot of people. The earlier a patient starts treatment, the better for their long term prognosis and the slower the onset of disability, so this will help many MS patients in many ways.

Right now there's only treatments that slow progression, no cure....but there's some exciting new ideas in research going on, that, who knows, may just help find a cure!! YAH!!!!!

Go Eric Go!.....Go Eric Go!......Go Eric Go!........Go Eric Go!

[etlsport]

Thank you for your donation Sue! Thats exactly the kind of thing we are raising for, funding for research as well as to help families out with medical bills.

We are sponsored by Copaxone, an injectable medication to help prevent replases of MS. They actually will be matching donations for us again this year.

Last year team Copaxone raised $45,000, and the event as a whole raised 4 million+ we're hoping to do even better this year!

[WormGod]

One of my good friends was diagnosed with MS just 2 years ago. He has been involved in an NIH program for trial/experimental treatments and has been in remission for quite some time now.

Kat, he has been trialing the pill you are probably talking about. I am kinda out of the loop since he doesn't talk about it too much, but he has been doing pretty damned good this year. No matter how you look at it, "something" is working, heh.

[Ldub]

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[VX KAT]

One of my good friends was diagnosed with MS just 2 years ago. He has been involved in an NIH program for trial/experimental treatments and has been in remission for quite some time now.

Kat, he has been trialing the pill you are probably talking about. I am kinda out of the loop since he doesn't talk about it too much, but he has been doing pretty damned good this year. No matter how you look at it, "something" is working, heh.

That's great to hear, and great to hear he's getting treatment early in the disease process since the more "attacks" or "relapses" you can stave off, means less damage to the nerve fibers. In the earlier years, much (but not all) of the damage to the nerve fibers is repaired by the body, that's why early treatment is now so important with these drugs that have become available in the last decade.

I'm in year 18, and after about the first decade, nothing gets repaired after a relapse, so it's critical for me to try to prolong the time period between attacks (which is the best you can hope for right now), so I can prolong the further accumulation of disabling nerve damage and memory loss. I didn't get any treatment until about 6 yrs ago....(I don't feel "sick", pay no attention, bury head in sand...continue with life...that should work OK, right? Ya'll already know I'm ornery! )....so by then I'd accumulated many deficits.

The IV drug has been shown to reduce relapses over a period of time by over 50%!! I had 4 relapses in 2004 alone, messed me up good....and made me take a little more notice! Now, since starting treatment in 2004, just 1 relapse since then, wahooo!!
Now I'm just hopin' to hang onto whatz I gotz for as long as I can!

..and I sure would be willing to trade the IV for a pill! The results I've seen posted put it really close to the IV drug's success rate! Let's hope it continues to show success and no serious effects!

Go Eric Go!.....Go Eric Go!......Go Eric Go!........Go Eric Go!

[etlsport]

you guys are awesome! VX.info is responsible for over half of my donations so far thanks to everyone who has donated!

[etlsport]

Just an update on progress..
So far Ive raised $220, the event it self has raised $934,000 with 58 days left.

been training quite a bit.. 3-4 rides a week, my last one was 30 miles averaging 17-19mph

[etlsport]

reached the minimum goal of $300 by a donation match from Teva Neuroscience. everyone who donated early had their donations doubled!

the ride is exactly 1 month away, thanks to all of my supporters!

[etlsport]

Wanted to say a huge thank you again to everyone who donated!

The ride was yesterday. Total time on the bike was 4 hrs 45 min. Spent some additional time at rest areas and had one bike that needed to be repaired.

At the 42 mile mark...

At the finish line...

[VX KAT]

Way to go Eric!
OK, you look better at the finish line than at the 45 milemark....!