Through A Child’S E Touring Art Exhibit Features Works By Children Whose Lives Are Touched By Multiple Sclerosis

`If I could see MS, it would look like a big monster. It takes up lots of room in my house.

It has a very long tail to trip my mom and knock her down and try to hurt her. It is a very selfish monster.

We try our best to ignore it and not to let it push us around. Sometimes, the monster is quiet, and we forget about him. One day, we will get rid of it and say good-bye to it forever.”

- Max Mosher, 8, Mechanicsville, Va.

If multiple sclerosis had a face, Max Mosher believes it would look like a monster - bold and stern with big horns and beady eyes. Mosher lives with this monster; he is a bystander to an unpredictable illness that casts its menacing shadow on his mother, causing her fatigue and numbness, dizziness and vertigo, poor balance and eye strain.

With crayon and paper, Mosher has expressed his experience of living with multiple sclerosis as part of a nationwide art exhibit, “MS Through the Eyes Of a Child.”

Children ages 5 to 15 from virtually every state have created more than 100 works of art in the exhibition to tell the story of how multiple sclerosis affects children as their loved ones suffer. As part of its cross-country tour, the exhibition is in Spokane through August and can be viewed at the Children’s Museum of Spokane, 110 N. Post, and across the street at the Art at Work Gallery, 123 N. Post.

The exhibit is sponsored locally by Berlex Pharmaceuticals, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Inland Northwest Chapter, and the Holy Family Multiple Sclerosis Center.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society launched the exhibit in 1998 to inform the public about the chronic disease of the central nervous system, which affects more than 300,000 Americans. The exhibition carries the message that chronic illness extends far beyond the individual who has the disease to family members who stand and watch, help and encourage.

Since MS typically strikes between the ages of 20 and 40, it dramatically alters family life, often placing children in a caregiving role at a very young age.

Dr. Ben Thrower, medical director at Holy Family Hospital’s Multiple Sclerosis Center, has worked to bring the exhibit to Spokane in an effort to raise public awareness of a disease that is all too familiar in our region. The Inland Northwest has the second highest average incidence rate of MS in the world, affecting 180 of every 100,000 people.

One theory to explain this phenomenon has to do with the geographical latitude of the region. Multiple sclerosis occurs more often in people living at latitudes between 40 and 60 degrees north and south of the equator.

Another explanation points to the Inland Northwest’s large population of Northern European descendants who statistically contract the disease in higher proportion to other nationalities.

For children touched by MS, statistics are unimportant. To them, MS means watching a parent or grandparent suffer, receive shots and visit hospitals.

Conversely, it means sharing simple joys, such as gardening and eating ice cream, that transcend the disease.

These are the messages conveyed in “MS Through the Eyes Of a Child.” Each entry includes a child’s written description of his or her artwork.

“My mom’s legs go numb sometimes,” one girl writes of her drawing, which shows her mother wearing leg braces. “We love to grow flowers around our house. The flowers cheer us up.”

Another girl sketches her mother’s guardian angel, hoping for the angel “to come and take her pain and trouble away.” An older child states, “Sometimes they embarrass you with their cane, but that is a small price to pay if you love someone.”

Much of the artwork depicts the unpredictability of the disease.

One picture is of a rainbow that turns into a tornado. Another caption reads, “MS is like stormy weather, like rain, thunder and lightning.”

Despite dealing with an illness that, as yet, has no known cause or cure, the exhibit communicates the boundless hope of children. There are drawings of rainbows, sunrises, and helping hands.

A 12-year old girl paints the caption, “There’s Always Tomorrow.”

While MS research continues, groups such as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society offer support, education, advocacy and financial assistance to individuals and their families battling the disease. In the mind of Lexie Robinson, 10, of Scottsdale, Ariz., the outcome will be victorious. Her drawing is of a girl standing next to an empty wheelchair holding a star upward.

“My dream,” she writes, “is someday there will be a cure for all the people who have MS. Everybody needs hope to get out of their chair and reach for the stars.”

DETAILS Did you know? Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic disease that affects the central nervous system. MS is not contagious and is rarely fatal. Its cause and cure are unknown. More than 300,000 Americans have multiple sclerosis, with nearly 200 new cases diagnosed every week. The Inland Northwest has the second highest average incidence rate of multiple sclerosis in the world. For further information, contact the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Inland Northwest Chapter, 818 E. Sharp, Spokane. Telephone is 482-2022 or (800) 726-2826. The “Through the Eyes of a Child” art exhibit may be viewed through August at the Children’s Museum of Spokane, 110 N. Post (624-5437), and the Cheney Cowles Art At Work Gallery, 123 N. Post (458-3580).