Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-18-Speech-4-014"
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"en.20031218.1.4-014"2
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"Mr President, I would like to add my congratulations to the rapporteur and most especially to the petitioner, Louise McVay, on her initiative and determination in getting this matter to the European Parliament. It takes resolve to get a matter on the floor of the European Parliament, and for someone suffering from the ravages of this disease, it shows outstanding strength of will. I am also pleased that it is the European Parliament's petitions procedure that has enabled that to happen.
Allow me to tell a personal story. About ten years ago, my sister-in-law, married to my twin brother, invited me to their home for the weekend. She asked me to look at my twin brother. He did not appear to be standing quite correctly – something was wrong with his balance. She said that it was my job to convince him to go to a doctor. I did that job and the early stages of MS were first of all diagnosed. That subsequently was proven not to be the case: he had a related disease, called ataxia nervosa. Like MS, it attacks the mobility of the patient, not the thinking part of the brain at all. In two horrible years he was confined to a wheelchair and finally the disease killed him. In one respect he was very fortunate: he had a great employer. I will name them: Shell UK. They paid for treatment, a chauffeur to drive him to and from work and for a personal assistant to operate his computer and to push his wheelchair. They had the sense, the decency and the foresight and, I suppose, the resources to treat a disabled person as a real person. That is all that anybody asks and that is what this report asks.
I have told this story for two reasons. Firstly, to remind all of us who are fit and active today that tomorrow we could find ourselves in a wheelchair. If that happens as a result of an accident, often compensation is paid. If it happens as a result of disease, there is no insurance or compensation and you are in the hands of society – people like you and me. Secondly, for some diseases there is no treatment – or it is only patchily available – and there is very limited research. Further research is needed and we must be prepared to encourage and support that research as requested in this report. Louise is right: if there is therapy that helps, for example beta interferons, then it must be made available to all sufferers.
I am particularly grateful to the rapporteur for putting forward the oral amendments that would allow the pressure from this petition to be used to help not just the hundreds of thousands of sufferers from multiple sclerosis, but also sufferers from other similar mobility-impairment and neuro-degenerative diseases, who need help too. We must learn from each other and we must learn to help Louise and the hundreds of thousands like her."@en1
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