How an Ad Sparked the MS Movement

Making a Difference

April 24, 2025

Alex Derencz

Bernard and Sylvia Lawry look at each other, smiling, as they sit at a table. — After her brother Bernard (left) was diagnosed with MS in 1937, Sylvia Lawry (right) cast aside her dreams of becoming a lawyer and set out to get answers about the disease.

environmental and other factors, such as low levels of vitamin D and Epstein-Barr virus being risk factors for developing MS.Thanks to research, there are now more than 20 disease-modifying therapies (DMT) available to treat MS. People are also learning how to minimize the disease with lifestyle choices, such as a healthy diet and exercise.The Society is also rallying the world around the Pathways to Cures Roadmap, which is considered to be the most collaborative MS research effort of all time. The roadmap aligns worldwide resources and research to accelerate discoveries to stop MS, restore lost function and end MS forever.While Coetzee believes Lawry would be proud of the advancements in MS research, he believes she wouldn’t be satisfied.“She would continue to ask what else should we do?” Coetzee says. “Who else should we bring into this movement so that we can go faster to find a cure for the disease and so that we can better support people affected by MS?”" c-nmssatomrichtext_nmssatomrichtext-host="">

Eighty years ago, a determined woman placed a classified ad in the New York Times and 11 words ignited a global movement.Sylvia Lawry put an ad in the May 1, 1945 edition:“MULTIPLE sclerosis. Will anyone recovered from it please communicate with patient.”Lawry was inspired to find answers on behalf of her brother, who was diagnosed in 1937. Dozens of people responded. Realizing more MS research was needed to find answers, Lawry founded the Advancement of Research on Multiple Sclerosis in March 1946, which was renamed the National Multiple Sclerosis Society one year later.Today, the Society is the largest MS organization in the world and thanks to Lawry, the global leader of the MS movement, according to Society President and CEO, Dr. Tim Coetzee.“We give a voice to people living with MS,” Coetzee says. “We lift up the MS community and raise awareness of the MS community. We are a proactive, leading organization that when we see gaps, we move in to fill them."While Coetzee didn’t have the pleasure of meeting Lawry, her persistence inspires him.“She went where she needed to go, talked to who she needed to talk to and didn’t take no for an answer and did that because she believed we needed to find a cure for her brother,” Coetzee says. “Fast forward to today and you think of the scores of people that were impacted by the work she did. It’s remarkable.”“I really believed this would be a short-term undertaking,” Lawry said in “Courage: The Story of the Mighty Effort to End the Devastating Effects of Multiple Sclerosis,” her biography by Richard Trubo. “Of course, I was wrong.”Since the Society was founded 8 decades ago, Coetzee says its focus has been finding a cure for MS.“We’re proud to say the Society is the largest private funder of MS research in the world,” Coetzee says. “We've paved the way for every effective MS treatment available today. To think about the discoveries that led to those treatments, but not just discoveries that have led to treatments, discoveries that have accelerated the ability to diagnose the disease quickly and have accelerated our knowledge of the disease are all tied back to the original ad.”Over the last 80 years, researchers have identified more than 200 genes linked to MS and have learned more about the role of environmental and other factors, such as low levels of vitamin D and Epstein-Barr virus being risk factors for developing MS.Thanks to research, there are now more than 20 disease-modifying therapies (DMT) available to treat MS. People are also learning how to minimize the disease with lifestyle choices, such as a healthy diet and exercise.The Society is also rallying the world around the Pathways to Cures Roadmap, which is considered to be the most collaborative MS research effort of all time. The roadmap aligns worldwide resources and research to accelerate discoveries to stop MS, restore lost function and end MS forever.While Coetzee believes Lawry would be proud of the advancements in MS research, he believes she wouldn’t be satisfied.“She would continue to ask what else should we do?” Coetzee says. “Who else should we bring into this movement so that we can go faster to find a cure for the disease and so that we can better support people affected by MS?”

A copy of the ad in The New York Times. — Tucked in the “Public Notices and Commercial Notices” section, the ad garnered stories from others affected by MS who were also desperate for answers.

What's Next

donating to the Society, you can help make Lawry’s dream of a cure come true and change the world for the millions of people affected by MS." c-nmssatomrichtext_nmssatomrichtext-host="">

Sylvia Lawry died in 2001 at the age of 85, but her legacy lives on as the Society advances its mission of curing MS while empowering everyone affected by it to live their best lives.“The world of living with MS today is fundamentally different than what her brother, Bernard, experienced,” Coetzee says. “We still have a lot of challenges, but the world is different. The uncertainty associated with the diagnosis of MS has been significantly reduced.”And it all started with a sister’s brief message seeking information and help.By donating to the Society, you can help make Lawry’s dream of a cure come true and change the world for the millions of people affected by MS.

donating to the Society, you can help make Lawry’s dream of a cure come true and change the world for the millions of people affected by MS." c-nmssatomrichtext_nmssatomrichtext-host="">

Alex Derencz

Alex Derencz is a Content Specialist with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society based in Birmingham, Alabama.

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