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Squamish woman walking for MS this Saturday

'I may not be able to walk as far this year, but I will still be walking for all of us who are fighting this hellish disease'
Finn
Finn, who will be walking with Lindsay Waite on Saturday, May 23.

Squamish resident Lindsay Waite is used to making the best of things.

Life with multiple sclerosis means she has to go with the flow — how she is feeling when she wakes up each day.

There are good days and bad days, but she makes the best of the good ones and does what she can on the bad.

When the pandemic meant the annual in-person team walk in support of the MS Society of Canada was called off, it didn't mean Waite shrugged and planned a day in front of Netflix. 

Instead, she is doing a five-kilometre walk on Saturday, with her lovable pooch Finn by her side.

Waite's walk is to raise funds for the society, which financially assists those living with MS and funds research.

Last year, Waite walked 10 kilometres, but has lowered her goal this year to deal with her physical reality.

"I am on a medication called Ocrevus which has been a lifesaver for me. It is an infusion I get every six months. At around four to six weeks before my next infusion is due — I’m currently in that range — I enter what I call the 'crap gap' and start to decline," she said in a Facebook post she shared with The Chief.

"My legs are heavy and feel like weights are strapped to them. They feel weak. My fatigue has returned. I am very dizzy, in a lot of pain and my limbs are numb. Nothing will stop me, though, from doing this walk I’ve so been looking forward to doing."

So far, Waite has raised $1,700 of her $2,500 goal.

"I may not be able to walk as far this year, but I will still be walking for all of us who are fighting this hellish disease," she sad.

Until May 24, every dollar donated online to #WeChallengeMS is worth double and will go twice as far in supporting all Canadians affected by multiple sclerosis, according to the society.

You can support Waite's efforts with a donation here:

MS fast facts:

*Canada has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis (MS)

*77,000 Canadian adults live with MS

*MS is usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 to 49

*MS is three times more likely to occur in women

*May is MS awareness month

~MS Society of Canada

 

Disclosure: Waite and The Chief’s editor Jennifer Thuncher worked together professionally on a children’s book in 2019.

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