“MS Awareness Week is an important event to help highlight the problems facing people with MS and supporting the charities and groups which help them,” said Natalie Don MSP (SNP – Renfrewshire North & West), commenting on MS Awareness Week which runs from 25th April until 1st May 2022.

The theme for this year’s awareness week is ‘uncertainty’ because MS is unpredictable and different for everyone living with it. As a fluctuating condition people have good days and bad, and go to bed not knowing what tomorrow will bring. They don’t know how symptoms might change, how their condition may progress or whether their treatments will continue to work.

This uncertainty can be exacerbated by a social security system that does not guarantee adequate support, stretched health services that may not be there when needed and a rising cost of living that will have a greater impact on disabled people than others.

Natalie Don MSP added:

“I met with the MS Society Scotland earlier this year where the issue of uncertainty was raised with me. It comes as no surprise then to find that a recent survey carried out for MS Awareness Week by MS Society Scotland revealed that 67% of respondents living with MS said they were ‘scared and uncertain about the future’.

“Rises in the cost of living present an acute challenge for people living with disabilities in general and MS in particular. Before the pandemic MS Society Scotland estimated that the average person living with MS faced additional costs of between £600-£1000 per month, depending on the severity of their condition.

“I welcome MS Awareness week as a chance to highlight this important issue and to support the work of charities, such as the MS Society Scotland and the MS Trust in raising awareness of MS and campaigning for better care and funding research to stop MS.”

Further Information on MS (Multiple Sclerosis) can be found at: https://www.mssociety.org.uk/contact-us/scotland