by Yves Savoie
Canadians have garnered an international reputation for our kindness, compassion, and generosity. According to Imagine Canada, approximately 60 per cent of Canadian adults will give $5 billion to charities during the holiday season. Today, #GivingTuesday marks the time of year when Canadians begin to think about strengthening their communities and carving out time in busy schedules to help others.
Choosing a charity for holiday giving can mean choosing between many causes that have personal meaning. Canadians give on a scale that reflects a committed belief in the importance of improving people’s daily lives and contributing to the many advancements required to end many illnesses—including multiple sclerosis.
This year we are asking Canadians to invest in ending Canada’s disease. Canada has the highest rate of MS in the world—but, in addition to our kindness, we also have a reputation for delivering some of the world’s best MS research. With ongoing collaborative research happening in the areas of stem cells, progressive MS, and investigating the possible triggers of MS, an investment in MS research is now going further than ever before.
We are proud of the knowledge that has been established so that we may continue the momentum our researchers have worked so hard to build. In 2015, we saw the establishment of the first Canadian clinical trial studying the ability of mesenchymal stem cells to treat MS; a better understanding of the relationship between exercise and MS in children; and further confirmation of the link between MS development and vitamin D. Your donations—a significant portion of which were received during past holiday seasons—are what makes progress like this possible.
Make a donation between now and December 31, 2015, and your gift will be matched dollar for dollar, up to a total of $50,000. That means your gift will have twice the impact during the holiday season.
Thank you for all you have done to help end MS in 2015. We look forward to having an even larger impact on the lives of Canadians affected by MS in 2016.