History
In 2008,
the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada commemorated the 60th
anniversary of its founding. A small group of dedicated volunteers
in Montreal founded
the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada in 1948 after contact
with the newly established National MS Society (USA). Support
of MS research began
in 1949.
Headquarters for the Society remained in Montreal until the mid-1960s
when the offices were moved to Toronto. Other advances came with the establishment
of regional divisions; there are now seven divisions across Canada, from
coast to coast. The International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies,
of which the Canadian Society is a charter member, was established in
1967.
Founders
Evelyn Gotlieb Opal
Diagnosed with MS in 1936 at
the age of 23 during a time in which the common advice was
just to "go home and hope for the best",
Evelyn Gotlieb decided she would take on life her own way.
This included marriage
in 1944 to Jack Opal although she made sure that he talked to
her neurologist before they became engaged to make sure he
knew what MS might bring. They
started their life together in a small apartment in west end
Montreal.
Determination, however, could not stop MS from progressing and when their
daughter Minda was born in 1945, Evelyn was using a wheelchair most of
the time.
Juggling the demands of both family and MS, Evelyn did not hesitate when
she learned in 1946 from her neurologist Dr. Colin Russel about a new
MS organization a young New York City woman, Sylvia Lawry had just launched
in the United States. She became an enthusiastic fund raiser for the new
group and then started the Dr. C.K. Russel Chapter of the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society.
Harry H. Bell
At the same time, Harry H. Bell, a Montreal engineer, was trying to find
his own answers to MS. Diagnosed in 1942, he had also been in touch with
Sylvia Lawry telling her he wanted to organize an MS research organization.
She suggested that the two groups of Montrealers get together and create
their own Canadian research support society.
Throughout 1947 and early 1948, the two groups met to decide on objectives
and by-laws. The federal charter creating the Multiple Sclerosis Society
of Canada was issued August 6, 1948.
Evelyn Opal decided not to become a member of the board of directors
of the new society, saying she would rather work more directly with the
local Dr. C.K. Russel Chapter. (The chapter later became the Montreal
Association for Multiple Sclerosis, which supported local services for
people with MS and directed research contributions through the MS Society
of Canada.)
In November 1948, this small chapter presented the new MS Society with
a $3,000 cheque for MS research. Encouraged by this support, the board
of directors pledged $50,000 for MS research over five years to the Montreal
Neurological Institute. The first instalment was paid in January 1949.
Sylvia Lawry
"MULTIPLE sclerosis. Will anyone recovered
from it please communicate with patient. "
Sylvia Lawry placed this ad in The New York Times in 1945 because she
was frustrated at not being able to find out any information about the
disease that had just struck her brother.
The response to the ad was so overwhelming - though not with the hoped-for
cure - that Sylvia Lawry decided to form a group to support MS research.
The fledgling National Multiple Sclerosis Society began operating in 1946,
and news of its establishment spread quickly to all parts of the United
States and Canada.
From the very beginning the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada has
benefitted greatly from the remarkable foresight that these leaders generously
offered to people with MS and their families and friends.
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