MILWAUKEE — Brittany Heintz Walters, a Greendale, Wisconsin native, is one of the participants running the Wisconsin leg of the MS Run the US relay — the equivalent of six marathons in six days.
“We’ll see how it goes. I haven’t done something like this before,” she said. “Total training 10 months. I’m still working up to it.”
The run is a widescale effort to raise money for research into the cause and potential cures for Multiple Sclerosis
In a way, she’s helping herself. Dr. Heintz Walters has a Ph.D. in Kinesiology and is an Assistant Professor of Neuromechanics at Seattle University. This is how the Greendale native explains the condition:
“Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a potentially debilitating movement disorder affecting 2.2 million people worldwide,” she told WTMJ. “It’s an autoimmune disease characterized by damage to neurons in the central nervous system.”
The result can be a lack of mobility, pain, weakness, depression, and a host of other things. Brittany knows that all too well, not just from her research. Her college roommate was recently diagnosed with MS.
“So my dear friend Lisa, she was diagnosed with MS a few years ago,” Brittany recalled. “Just her resilience and determination as she faced the challenges of her diagnosis. She also ran the same segment I’ll be running after her diagnosis. She really served as an inspiration to me.”
The Greendale native hopes to raise $10,000 with her leg of the run this summer. Click here for more information or to donate.
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