Climb The Peak (CTP)
for Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
This event means a lot to me. More than I think words can actually explain but I am going to try as I want to put all of you in my shoes and show you. Show you how important fundraisers are. What impact they can have on the world around us?
Launched in 2022, Walk MS: Your Way was created to provide Walk MS® participants with an accessible, flexible option to celebrate their own way. Regardless of geographic location, anyone can raise funds and awareness in a meaningful way alongside friends, family, coworkers, and more!
As an MS Ambassador with the National MS Society (NMSS) I grabbed onto this new opportunity to create our own community-driven event right here in Henniker, NH.
Why would I want to lift such a heavy endeavor, like organizing an event, especially with all that I have going on? It’s simple, I actually didn’t think twice.
This is where my story comes into play.
I have MS.
I was diagnosed in Sept 2019, on the 4th to be exact. I remember it all so vividly.
I had traveled to Texas for a work event and it was extremely hot at 112 degrees. I returned home and went for a hike with my daughter and some work colleagues the next day. It was Sunday, the following day when I attempted to stand from a laying down position on the couch mid-morning. It was a rest day. I was watching TV and wanted to get up for another cup of coffee. I stumbled, and upon trying to correct that stumble, stumbled again. My legs were numb and tingly.
I steadied myself and continued on with my day, perplexed by this new sensation in both of my legs. I went for a walk, I went for a swim, I did light yoga and nothing seemed to help. Over the course of a week, I tried everything to get the feeling to come back but it only seemed to be getting worse. My legs were so numb now I couldn’t feel myself touching them, or my clothes brushing against them. Muscle memory was all that was keeping me moving forward and something new was the sensation of being squeezed or hugged really hard around my core. The entire thing, my back all the way around to my chest. It was actually hard to breathe at times. It seems that the more I focused on it, the tighter it got.
This is when I called my PCP. I was scared. Did I get a blood clot on the plane? It was only a 6-hour flight from Austin, TX to Boston, MA. I hiked the next day. What could be happening?
After a full round of MRIs, a full lyme panel and a lupus test my doctor phoned. My thoracic spine MRI showed demyelination at my T2. I still remember her words after that, “Sarah, I am sorry, you have MS.”
Still, with numb, tingly legs and the squeeze of an anaconda around my chest and core, I fell to the floor. In sheer disbelief and wonder of how this could happen. I was healthy, I was fit, I was a mother, a determined, strong woman who was only just beginning to discover herself.
I made a herculean effort to get the very best MS Specialist in the region, not just a neurologist but someone that specialized in MS because I was determined to beat it. Even though I didn’t really know what ‘beating it’ meant or if it was even possible.
I turned to the NMSS website and found out a little more, like it has no cure, yet. That word ‘yet’ would give me the hope and determination I need. Fast forward, I got that awesome team of MS specialists, I got on steroids for 5 days via IV to stop the ‘flare up’ my body was in and I learned all I possibly could about MS treatments and built a plan.
I would deplete my B Cells and stop my body from attacking itself. With every good plan comes side effects, or so I have learned. But my journey made me more determined than ever to be a voice for this invisible disease. To shout it from the mountain tops that nearly 1 million people in the US alone have MS. That you can’t see it in over 80% of us because it is indeed invisible. We smile, and we carry on. We are Living With MS.
I would climb to the top of Mount Washington in June of 2020 with a group of amazing people I call my tribe. I did this because my goal is to raise awareness and funds to find a cure for MS, in my lifetime! I raised over $10,000 for the National MS Society that day. I continue to raise awareness and funds but what I have learned and a very hard lesson for me, one who doesn’t accept help very easily…
I can’t do my life alone anymore, and I can’t raise awareness and funds alone. It takes a community.
Full circle back to organizing the Climb the Peak for MS event. It’s a fundraiser where I have asked the entire community and surrounding areas to join me in making a difference. To share with their friends, family and local businesses about MS.
Every single day I am fighting for my body to feel good enough to do daily activities and push it to do the bigger things like hiking. Things like showering, getting dressed, and fixing a meal, wipe me out. The mental brain power it uses to get through a single day sometimes wipes me out. So I turn to the person reading this blog and ask, Will you help me?
Together we can create a world free of MS.
Learn more about the Climb The Peak for MS event, register and join our team. Share this blog and details with your friends and family. Be sure to donate to this worthy cause. We will find a cure.
A huge shout out to our local sponsors for 2023’s event that helped to make this event happen:
Please keep reading for event Information and more details about what is going into creating this event to be hopefully annual and include fun prizes and an opportunity to get outside and experience the great outdoors.
Pats Peak provided the mountain space and day for us to have the mountain on May 21st.
We will be offering 3 options for the climb/walk. One to the summit, one to the first lookout and one to experience their beautiful grounds.
Western Ave Pizzaria has sponsored the volunteer t-shirts you will see all of the amazing volunteers wearing because as I said, I can not do this alone!
Superscoops have donated coupons for free ice cream, coffee and dessert cakes. Be sure to pop in after your climb to experience some of what I would personally say is the best ice cream in town.
Cake Mama has provided us with FINISHER CUPCAKES! That is right, you heard it hear, there are no drink tickets but there are sweet treats with Orange frosted chocolate and vanilla cupcakes for the first 100 finishers!
This has been such an amazing experience where I have been able to work with local businesses and share my story and feel the support of the community around me.
There will also be a raffle at the event for an opportunity to win things like a tasting for 4 and 4-pint glasses at Henniker Brewing Company and a cooling vest and hat package from Polar Products.
This is the Event-specific Participant T-Shirt you will receive for raising $500 for the NMSS.
