Change \'chanj\.

1 a: to make different; b: to transform; c: to give a different position, course, or direction to; 2 a: to replace ...

Change is exhilarating--we all crave it. Change is also difficult--and all of us resist it sometimes. But the National MS Society is all about change.

When Sylvia Lawry's brother was diagnosed with MS, she was not willing to accept the world the way she found it--a world where virtually no MS research was done and where people with MS were simply told to go home and wait for their lives to end. Sylvia Lawry changed that world forever.

Today we have a nationwide network of Society offices offering programs and information; we have realistic reasons for hope in the new drugs that slow the MS process; we have an international research effort that is pushing for cure, prevention, and restoration of functions. And we have new technology and new attitudes.

We also have a commitment to Sylvia's tradition. We must speed up positive change and stop unfavorable change. I'm not content with the state of the MS world today, and neither are you. The drive to change it is apparent throughout this magazine.

People like Pam Stebbins (page 17) are taking on the job of becoming savvy consumers of medical care, even if that involves educating their health-care providers. People like Jeff Crosby and Valerie Wilson (pages 53 and 54) are exploring voice-activated software to stay active, connected, creative, and employed despite what MS has cruelly stolen from them. People like Ellen Burstein (page 57) aren't hiding at home, despite hurtful social attitudes.

And we, the Society and its professional advisors, have risen to the challenge posed by new knowledge and new treatments. We are partnering with the Paralyzed Veterans of America in its Clinical Practice Guidelines project to jump-start the knowledge base of physicians who are not MS specialists (page 29). Substantial numbers of people with MS receive care from nonspecialist physicians.

We've even moved to end an unfair application of the federal law on mailing educational materials to people with disabilities. The new "MS Rule" will help us make even more efficient use of the dollars we raise for our fight to change the face of MS and end its devastating effects. Please read the green form in the centerfold and send it in if you are eligible.

Help us change the world.