World MS Day 2014

For 2014, the World MS Day theme was access – not just physical access, but also access to drugs, information and treatment, and the same social and economic opportunities as everyone else. We asked people to think about barriers to access in their life and to make a wish for something that would help overcome those barriers. As a way of focusing on the many issues around access the campaign used the tagline ‘One day.’ The main aims for World MS Day 2014 were to:

• Raise awareness of MS, national MS societies, and the global network of MS organisations by producing a public facing campaign.
• Strengthen the global movement of MS organisations (especially in low- and middle-income countries) by encouraging continuity across participating countries.
• Encourage participation and to increase and diversify partner involvement in the campaign and the movement.
• Organise materials, tools and messaging relating to World MS Day 2014 to support organisations and reach the general public.

The key actions we wanted people to take based on the objectives were:

• Submit (an experience or wish)
• Learn (about the experience of others)
• Share (with their personal network, thus reaching out to the public).
  

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Highlights

• Volunteers from the Japan MS Society took to the streets of downtown Tokyo to raise awareness of MS. They handed out pamphlets and pens with information about MS to over 5000 passers-by. The volunteers were equipped with World MS Day banners and bright tropical pink T-shirts.
• Esclerosis Múltiple Argentina held a free informational meeting on World MS Day. Health professionals provided information about patient rights, access and social benefits for people with MS. They also ran a social media campaign to emphasise the importance of talking about MS. They reached lots of people with the help of celebrity supporters and a sustained media campaign on TV and radio.
• 79 per cent of MS International Federation members and supporting organisations, from 77 countries, took part
• 35,000 visitors to the campaign website
• 77,000 Facebook likes
• 6,500 Twitter followers

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and Dorinda Roos, CEO of Stichting MS Research (Netherlands), on World MS Day 2014

Members of the Hungarian MS Society gather in Budapest to celebrate World MS Day