Philanthropist Nancy Davis was living a relatively normal and healthy lifestyle at 33 years old until a ski accident changed everything — doctors discovered she was suffering from much worse than anACL tear,but ratherMultiple Sclerosis,orMS.
“I felt that the ski accident was causing me to lose feelings, so I had a knee brace and all these things, and it didn’t make any sense why I was losing feeling everywhere,” Davis, who was also suffering from a loss of eyesight and sensation in her fingers and hands, tells PEOPLE. “But, it turned out it was MS, and I found out three weeks later.”
According to theNational Multiple Sclerosis Society,MS is an unpredictable disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and body.
“In terms of the cause of MS, we have developed a good working model,” Dr. David A. Hafler, M.D. and Neurologist-in-Chief at Yale New Haven Hospital in North Haven, Connecticut, tells PEOPLE. “We have identified the hundreds of common genetic variants that cause MS, and research now is focused on better understanding progressive MS.”
Nancy Davis on the ski hill with her son as she battles MS.courtesy Nancy Davis
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The founder and designer ofPeace & Love Jewelryhad no idea how sick she already was and found herself suddenly getting much worse. Suffering from what Davis calls MS attacks, she’d feel numb in certain positions. Still in a state of shock, the young mom says she panicked.
“When I went to my first doctor and he started showing my X-rays all over the room with a light, he was pointing this laser on them and saying, ‘Do you see that spot on your brain? Do you that spot on your spinal column?’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is not good. This is really bad. I’m a mom, and I have a lot of life to live.’ It was such a rough time.”
“I started going from center to center talking to different doctors and I wanted everybody to tell me I didn’t have MS because I was heavily in denial,” Davis explains as she traveled the country looking for answers. “I was told there was nothing I could ever do and life as I knew it was over.”
Philanthropist Nancy Davis poses with David Foster, Avril Lavigne and Phillip Sarofim at her annual Race to Erase MS Gala in Beverly Hills.Randy Shropshire/Getty
Davis eventually found a team of doctors who put her on the right medicines and treatments so she could live a relatively normal life.
Philanthropist Nancy Davis gets on stage with Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler and David Osmond at her annual Race to Erase MS gala.Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty
“We put it right into really important research,” Davis, who has raised between $55-60M since starting the foundation 31-years-ago, explains. “We have seven to eight research hospitals at any given time and what we raise every year goes to funding their basic science research studies. We find things that have never been done in areas that have never been conquered and we do pilot studies. Many of those pilot studies have ended up becoming really important medicines right now that are saving lives.”
source: people.com
