Thanks to his physicians at the Hadassah Medical Center, Dov Guggenheim, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2015, has gone from “depressed to optimistic, paralyzed to athletic, and, most important, hopeless to hopeful.”
In appreciation for this drastic improvement in his quality of life, he is running the Jerusalem Marathon to raise money for Hadassah’s MS program.
With trust in his doctors and faith in the rapidly developing research into medical treatments for MS, Dov has been able to keep a positive outlook. Together with others at Hadassah’s MS Center, he established the MS running team last year and registered for the March 2017 Jerusalem Marathon. The team members dedicated themselves to raising money and awareness for the groundbreaking research being done by Hadassah in developing a stem cell cure for MS (and hopefully ALS as well).
Dov ran in the 2017 marathon with one leg barely functioning because of another MS attack, and “celebrated” back in the Emergency Room. That, however, was his last attack to date.
In June 2017, he was hospitalized once again. This time for treatment with a relatively new MS drug that has had good results in preventing attacks and even reducing brain and spine lesions. He will have to repeat the in-hospital treatment in another few months. But he has been lucky enough to regain control of his life during the past year.
He now has brought together another dedicated running team to raise money for Hadassah research with this breakthrough treatment. If all goes well, he may no longer need this treatment, but thousands of MS and ALS sufferers may benefit.
“Perhaps by next year, or the year after,” Dov says, “we will run in celebration, because the cure will have been found.”
Read more of Dov’s story in his blog.