MS Achievement Award The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) encourages awareness and promotes education and research on behalf of the over 400,000 people who live with the disease in this country and the estimated 2.5 million worldwide. Treatment, per individual, can cost up to $13,000 per year, and the NMSS helps buffer those costs through nationwide efforts at fundraising and educational programs. Although the majority of those afflicted with MS never become physically disabled, and symptoms vary from slurred speech to tremors and spasms, many sufferers experience limited mobility and as a result require more particular care and attention. Out of only a handful of national treatment centers devoted to caring for those with MS more fully, the MS Achievement Center in Gates is the only one which provides intensive, full-time therapy and rehabilitation, says Sally Redell, resident director. The ten-member staff of the MS Center serves up to 25 patients each day, promising a level of attention that is unmatched anywhere else. “We offer physical therapy, hot lunches and nursing,” says Redell. “We take care of the needs that couldn’t be met at home. It’s also a social thing really, but medical.” When Tim McCormick, President of Unity Health Systems - staffers of the MS Center - approached Gates Town Supervisor Ralph Esposito over a decade ago with the idea for the treatment center, Esposito deftly responded. “We just really pushed for it,” says Esposito. “We got all the zoning and permits done as quickly as possible.” The political wheels spun overtime and the MS Achievement Center was up and running by 1993. For Ralph Esposito, the battle with Multiple Sclerosis has been staged not merely on the political stage, but on the personal as well, as his daughter was diagnosed with MS nearly a decade ago. Fortunately, knowledge of the disease has grown by leaps and bounds, and by taking medication, Esposito’s daughter can thrive as a dentist and a mother, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “It’s plain to see the accomplishments in the life of my daughter,” says Esposito. “The medicines have become much less intrusive and much more effective.” On Saturday, December 9, Ralph Esposito was honored with the MS Achievement Award at this year’s MS Dinner of Champions, a fundraiser supported by the Upstate New York Chapter of the NMSS. “I’m excited and honored, and I’m proud to be associated with the center,” Esposito said before the dinner. “I think there are a lot of other people out there who are more deserving of this award, and that makes it even more special to me.” Thomas N. Trevett received the organization’s Distinguished Service Award for his volunteer efforts. December 10, 2006 |
