People
Dr. Eric Roter, an emergency room doctor who also happens to be a Juilliard-trained cellist, is leveraging his talent to raise funds for 36 disease-related charities through a campaign called Bach to Health. Paying homage to his days of street busking, for each charity he has created a recorded video of himself playing one of J.S. Bach's masterpiece "Cello Suites" on a Manhattan street scene that also includes medical information about the disease. This ABC News story on Dr. Roter explains how he exchanged a career in music for one in medicine and how he came up with the idea to blend the two.
Accelerated Cure Project is one of the charities Dr. Roter has chosen to support from among the highest rated nonprofits on American Institute of Philanthropy and Charity Navigator. Click here to see ACP's video -- we're the first entry in the top row, and our selection is the Prelude from Suite #1 in G major. Lovely!
(Thanks to Melissa O'Shea for sending this information.)
I thought this article was a good first-person account of one man who got autologous (his own) stem-cell treatment for his MS. It seems well-reasoned and not over-hyped and I like reading about what took place in his own words.
JK Rowling has stood down as patron of the Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland claiming that the charity is being split by an internal row.
Unfortunately, consistent with modern journalistic style, we are given no indication what the 'rift' is over, nor why she has a problem with whatever is happening.
I've been following a new, informative, and dryly funny blog written by the "Wheelchair Kamikaze," a 45-year old man with primary progressive MS living in New York City. Also posted on his site are some terrific videos captured by his chair-mounted camera, with voice-over comments about the challenges of getting around the Big Apple in a wheelchair.
Montel was on Oprah recently and lots of people were talking about it. The Oprah site now has a web version of the show as a written article.
I haven't seen this film, but I thought I'd spread the word:
Dan Aronie was a model and aspiring actor when he was diagnosed with a severe and progressive case of Multiple Sclerosis at 23. At an age where most people are just starting their lives, Dan is faced with contemplating an unsure future. With the support of family and friends, what Dan uncovers is a profound and inspiration inner strength - a certain kind of beauty he never knew he had.
You can see the 68 minute documentary online here.
It appears that capturing snapshots of Steve Jobs' Mercedes SL55 AMG parked in a handicapped spot at One Infinite Loop is quickly becoming one of the ultimate "must have" photos on a tour of "The Mothership".
I guess when you're that rich, the handicapped don't matter...
A man whose wife has suffered for 15 years with a debilitating disease is walking across England to raise £60,000. Andy Monk hopes that his 5,262 mile effort to 722 newspaper offices and radio stations will help scientists to rapidly research a cure for MS – which he has seen take hold of his wife.
Jim Dunlap, a Fort Collins man living with multiple sclerosis, rode in the four-day MS Global ride in Vail last weekend. Money raised at the event will help establish an MS Repository Collection site at the Rocky Mountain MS Center in Denver.
More anecdotal evidence of benefit of LDN, this time from the UK. Interestingly the UK MS Society aren't so disparaging about LDN as they used to be.
