The actresses Teri Garr and Annette Funicello, the television hosts Montel Williams and Neil Cavuto, the writer Joan Didion, Ann Romney, the wife of the presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the comedian Richard Pryor. These are some of the people that you quote-unquote know that have, or in Pryor's case had, Multiple Sclerosis.
The disease was first identified and named almost 150 years ago but we're still not sure what causes it and we don't know how to cure it.
There are roughly 6,000 people in Connecticut and you almost certainly know somebody with MS but you probably don't know much about it. You probably don't know there are four variants of it, or what life is like with it.
So, today we decided to find out. Meet your neighbors, the doctor who treats them, and a photographer swept up in their stories.
Mike Marques photography exhibit,i am a MoSaic, follows 46 Connecticut residents who are living with MS. You can view his photographs at West Hartford's Mandell Jewish Community Center through March 3, 2014.
You can attend MS Action Day on Tuesday, March 4, at 11:00 am at the State Capitol.
Leave your comments below, email us at colin@wnpr.org, or tweet us @wnprcolin.
GUESTS:
- Dr. Peter Wade is a neurologist at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center and Medical Director for the Mandell Multiple Sclerosis Center at Mt. Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital
- Mike Marques is a portrait and lifestyle photographer based in West Hartford
- Lynn Johnson is a Hartford-based psychotherapist and teacher of meditation at the Center for Serenity
- Paul O’Brien is a former actor and human resources executive. He currently runs a support group for people with MS and is active with the MS Society and planning April’s Connecticut MS Walk