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SALT LAKE CITY -- More than 4,000 runners and walkers took one step closer to a world free from Multiple Sclerosis Saturday.
People with and without the disease descended on the Gateway for the annual "Walk for Multiple Sclerosis."
"Just because you have MS doesn't mean you can't do things," says Colleen Witt of Draper, who has been battling the disease since 1998. "I just graduated law school last year. So, you can accomplish a lot once you can learn how to manage it."
MS causes the immune system to attack the central nervous system, interrupting the messages sent from the brain to the body. Utah has one of the highest rates of MS in the nation and the world.
Despite that, organizers say events like these are making a difference.
"Fifteen years ago there were no therapies to treat someone with MS and there wasn't a lot we could do," said Annette Royle, Utah chapter president of the National MS Society. "With the funds we raise at events like this we are now the largest funder of MS research and there are now six disease-modifying drugs that are treating people with MS and making a difference."
Organizers hoped to raise about $240,000 -- money that will go toward MS research.
