Cancer Survivor Celebrates Life by Walking for National MS Society

Online, April 13, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Last year Ann Pietrangelo was fighting for her life. This year she's celebrating life by walking to raise funds for the National MS Society.

Ann was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2004. She and her husband, Jim, participated in their first Walk MS that year, and many since. They missed last year's walk while Ann was receiving aggressive treatment for a second life-altering illness -- triple-negative breast cancer. The couple took the lesson they learned through life with MS and applied it to cancer -- fight with everything in you, but never stop living. What the future holds no one can say, but right now she's feeling on top of the world.

"I'm alive! If ever there was a year for us to walk, this sure is it," said Ms. Pietrangelo. "Good health, however long it lasts, should not be squandered, and we want to do our part."

MS is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system. Symptoms may be as mild as numbness in the limbs, or as severe as paralysis or blindness. The progress, severity, and symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary greatly from person to person. There have been advances in treatment, but the cause and the cure remain unknown.

Approximately 400,000 people in the U.S. have MS and 200 more are diagnosed each week. It is believed that 2.1 million people worldwide have MS. The Pietrangelos formed Team No More Secs! to help the National Multiple Sclerosis Society fund research to unlock the mysteries of MS and to improve the lives of those living with MS.

The couple's Walk MS Team is named for Ann's book -- "No More Secs! Living, Laughing & Loving Despite MS" -- which was published last year. One reader's comment captured the spirit of the book:

"What a nice book. I laughed, I cried, I connected to you in a way I've connected with no one else. It was so nice to know I'm not alone."

"And we're not alone," said Ann, "That's never more obvious than on Walk MS Day, so we named our team after the book."

Walk MS will be held on Saturday, May 12 in Clearbrook, VA. Team No More Secs! welcomes new walkers and virtual walkers to join their team and to help them help others.

Registration and/or donations can be made online at http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/nomoresecs. To learn more or to find out how to donate via check, email [email protected].