AskPatty.com and National MS Society Launch Joint MOMS Campaign to Raise Awareness for Multiple Sclerosis

Thousand Oaks, CA (PRWEB) May 10, 2013

AskPatty.com Inc., a website, blog, and online resource that serves as a safe haven for women to get advice on car purchases, preventative maintenance and repairs, and other automotive related topics, is pleased to announce that they will be running a month-long campaign along with the National MS Society to raise funds and awareness for MS, an illness that has affected AskPatty.com CEO Jody DeVere's family personally.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Symptoms may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or more severe, causing paralysis or loss of vision. The progress, severity, and specific symptoms ofMS are unpredictable and vary from one person to another. Today, new treatments and advances in research are giving new hope to people affected by the disease.

Jody DeVere, CEO ofAskPatty.com, is a mom with two adult children fighting Multiple Sclerosis. Jody's son Joe, now 40, has been fighting MS since 2002 and has a spinal cord injury due to a car accident in 2005 related to hisMS. Joe is currently in theSecondary Progressivestage of MS and is taking GILENYA (fingolimod), the multiple sclerosis treatment available as a once-daily pill. Joe says his biggest challenges are staying out of the hospital and free from infections -- and learning to use his new power wheelchair.

When her daughter Marie, age 37 and a mother of two children ages six and eight, was recently diagnosed with the disabling disease, Jody says she "felt like lightning struck in same place twice." Marie is currently labeled asRelapsing Remitting and is taking Avonex shots weekly. While the illness causes numbness in her hands and feet, flu symptoms, and fatigue from weekly shots, according to Marie, "Being a working mom withMSis a challenge in itself."

According to Jody, the challenges of Multiple Sclerosis affect the entire family. "I'm sometimes overwhelmed by the gravity of the disease and the horrible impact it's having on my children, in fact, on our entire family," she says.

Joe was hospitalized from December 2012 to February 2013 due to a major exacerbation that caused many complications and took away much of his independent living skills. Since then, Jody has joined Joe's wife Rosanna to become part of Joe's 24/7 caregiver team, and has even learned to be a pureed diet gourmet cook for him.

Rosanna recently won the "Caregiver of the Month" honor from Healthy Women. She is an avid snow boarder and together she and Joe have formed the non-profit foundation Threus.org to help others withspinal corddiseases go skiing, surfing, kayaking, and even white water rafting. Prior to his recent exacerbation, Joe was an enthusiastic paraplegic skier and skydiver, and as soon as he is stable again, the two are planning to scuba dive together.It's an important goal to Joe, who says "I value and want my independence back."

Educating, Donating, Working Together to Overcome Multiple Sclerosis

Jody recently shared "I would trade places with my children in a heartbeat. However since that's not possible I will fight to find every resource to help them and help fund research to find better treatments and hopefully one day a cure!"

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AskPatty.com and National MS Society Launch Joint MOMS Campaign to Raise Awareness for Multiple Sclerosis