Wellsville Multiple Sclerosis Walk: Marlee Cannon, Diane Winans doing their parts for MS awareness

Fourteen years after the Wellsville Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Walk started, there is a greater awareness of the disease which is now said to affect infants and young children.

Marlee Cannon, who grew up in Whitesville, but who lives in Wellsville, started the local MS Walk after she was diagnosed with the neurological disease in the 1990s. An active mother with two basketball-minded sons, she said, I wanted to raise awareness and let people know what was happening to me and what may be happening to them.

In 1999, when Cannon started the MS Walk, research indicated that MS was a disease which affected the brain and spinal cord, resulting in loss of muscle control, vision, balance and sensation. This usually occurred in women after their mid-30s. But recent research has shown that MS has begun to be diagnosed in infants and toddlers.

I have a friend whose 5-year-old granddaughter was diagnosed with MS. They noticed a change in her gait and had her tested, Cannon said.

Cannon and Diane Winans, who took over the walk in 2006 and who also has MS, said, Everyone is different, in the way the disease manifests itself.

Cannon noticed a problem with sight and painful peripheral vision, while Winans found she had problems with not only her vision, but also balance.

Some of the common warning signs are: pain and vision problems tingling in the extremities numbness and a burning sensation odd, neurological problems such as intense itching

Today, Cannon said, research has shown there is a greater risk of getting MS for anyone who is born and raised up to the age of 13 years, living above the Mason-Dixon Line in the industrial north.

It is like theres a bridge, if you live on the other side your chances of developing MS are dramatically lower," she said.

Over the last 14 years the walk has raised more than $200,000 for research including $25,000 in 2002, but for Cannon and Winans it is more significant that people know about the disease.

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Wellsville Multiple Sclerosis Walk: Marlee Cannon, Diane Winans doing their parts for MS awareness