La Mesa resident Jo McGlin was among 215 people, including 54 people who have multiple sclerosis, who recently completed a 50-mile walk over three days, from Friday, Sept. 23 to Sunday, 25, from Carlsbad’s Flower Fields to Downtown San Diego, at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s 10th annual Southern California Challenge Walk MS. McGlin, who was diagnosed with MS in October 1999, is one of 10 people who has walked in every Challenge Walk MS since the fundraiser began in 2002.
“It’s hard to believe, 500 miles in 10 years, and it’s such an honor to be one of 10 who has been back every year,” said McGlin, dean of special education at Patrick Henry High School. “This year’s walk was definitely the toughest one. I fought harder than any previous year. My body was not doing what I wanted it to do. But, I was determined not to give up and finish it, and I did.”
The National MS Society’s said this year’s Challenge Walk MS raised approximately $969,000 in donations for MS research and programs and services for Southern Californians living with MS, a chronic, unpredictable and disabling disease of the central nervous system with no known cause, cure or prevention. Since the event’s inception in 2002, when 179 local walkers raised $496,000, the Pacific South Coast Chapter’s Challenge Walk has raised more than $9.5 million, which is among the highest dollar amounts of any of the nine other Challenge Walk MS events organized by the 50-state network for MS Society chapters in the U.S. The 2011 Southern California Challenge Walk MS, which was organized by both the San Diego-based Pacific South Coast Chapter and the Los Angeles-based Southern California/Nevada Chapter, is the only Challenge Walk west of the Mississippi River. Information about the Challenge Walk MS is available at www.myMSchallenge.com.