Society scholarships keep giving

by Marcella Durand

Megan Lafferty remembers exactly what it was like to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 11.

“The dejected-sounding knock on Exam Room 4 had given me a clear message: bad news. Something was wrong with me,” Lafferty, the National MS Society 2014 Presidential Scholar, wrote in her scholarship application. “I cried in anger over being one of the 2 percent of patients under the age of 16 to be diagnosed [with MS]. I cried with worry for the slowing effects MS would have on my fast-moving life in school and sports. But most of all, I selfishly cried for fear of my future, wondering how people would look at me now that I was different.”

Now at age 18, Lafferty has come to terms with a life that includes MS, and even credits it for her ambition to become a doctor. “So many doctors have helped me throughout my struggles with MS; I want to do that for others,” she says. With the support of her Society scholarship, she plans to be a premed student at Hobart & William Smith College this fall.

The Society scholarship program exists to help students who have been diagnosed with MS or who live with a parent with MS to achieve their dreams of going to college.

Support for scholarships is provided by generous contributions from donors nationwide, and by these sponsors: Teva Neuroscience; Genzyme, a Sanofi company; the O’Donnell Family Foundation; the Modestus Bauer Foundation; and Golden Corral.

Marcella Durand is a frequent contributor to Momentum.