Phoenix, Arizona (NAPSI) - Creating a world free of multiple sclerosis requires a collaborative effort. That’s why starting every March, individuals and MS groups across the country unite to raise awareness and find new and better ways to help people living with MS lead their best lives.

This year, the annual awareness campaign kicks off the week of March 3-9 and will provide everyone who wants to connect to the MS Movement the opportunity to share their own image and story at www.MSconnection.org.

While on the site, visitors can also connect with thousands of people supporting one another and exploring the issues that shape the MS world.

MS is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that interrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and body. MS affects more than 2.3 million people worldwide.

Advancing MS research is one of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s highest priorities. Right now, it is supporting some 380 research projects around the world, is fostering global collaborations, and is increasing annual investments yearly to drive solutions that will stop MS progression, restore function that’s been lost, and end MS forever.

In just two decades, MS has moved from being an untreatable disease to one where there are at least 10 treatment options for those with relapsing MS, the most common form of the disease. And there are even more new therapies speeding through the pipeline that offer hope to people with all forms of the disease.

A few examples of the Society’s holistic research approach in action include:

Stopping MS:

The global Progressive MS Alliance is focusing new resources on finding the answers that will lead to new treatments and, ultimately, end progressive MS.

Restoring Function:

Early human trials of investigative therapies and adult stem cells are under way, aimed at repairing myelin, the nerve coating that is damaged by MS.

Ending MS Forever:

Studies are uncovering lifestyle factors that people can change—such as smoking, childhood obesity, and vitamin D levels—that may reduce the risk of the next generation developing MS.

Whether you volunteer, bike, walk, advocate, educate, support—every connection is a way of moving us closer to a world without multiple sclerosis. And remember to visit www.MSconnection.org to share why you connect with the MS Movement.