[Agua Dulce] – A local family is hoping to bring in a lot of green this St. Patrick’s Day. They’re hosting a party — not to help their family business, but to fight a disease that deeply affects them. Matthew Wooten, 29, and his sister Courtney, 28, were both diagnosed with multiple sclerosis exactly one month after their 17th birthdays.

Matthew co-owns Sweetwater Café in Agua Dulce with his mother, Kimberle. He says, “I want to give back and support the organization that has supported me, and helped me and my family for the past 13 years.”

Matthew was diagnosed with MS after losing feeling in his face in 2001. His sister, Courtney, just started her senior year in high school when she lost vision in her right eye. She, too, was diagnosed with MS in 2002, but her neurologist said she was young and her life would return to normal.

“A year later, I was back in his office. It went that way for about nine years,” she said. “I had an exacerbation (MS attack) every eight to ten months, with the recovery time taking longer and longer.”

Although no cure for MS currently exists, both Matthew and Courtney say life has become better, but the disease is always on their minds.

“I never know when I’m going to wake up and not be able to see or feel something. The uncertainty and the not knowing why is what drives you crazy,” Courtney said.

So, they’re doing what they can to support MS research, along with the programs and services provided by the National MS Society, by participating in Walk MS taking place Saturday, May 3 at the Lancaster Marketplace. Courtney says she walks “because I need to believe there is hope in numbers, instead of desperation, and that we will win this. We have to; our lives depend on it.”

The Wootens’ team, “Walking Winos,” is hosting a St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser this Monday, March 17 from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm to benefit Walk MS. All you have to do to show your support and make a contribution, is dine at the Sweetwater Café located at 33310 Agua Dulce Canyon Road in Agua Dulce, and buy any food item off the menu. In addition to their regular menu, they will be offering some specials such as corn beef cabbage and soda bread.

The Wooten family will donate a portion of the entire evening’s proceeds to the National MS Society, an organization Courtney says has helped her with her diagnosis, “I have found the Society to be fundamental in my disease because it allows me to stay on track of all the new medications, find support groups, connect with other people my age who have MS, and to generally feel like I’m not fighting this fight alone.”

For more information on Walk MS or the National MS Society, call 1.800.FIGHT.MS (1.800.344.4867) or visit www.nationalMSsociety.org/cal.

About Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system, interrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are moving us closer to a world free of MS. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with at least two to three times more women than men being diagnosed with the disease. MS affects more than 2.3 million worldwide.

About the National MS Society

The Society mobilizes people and resources to drive research for a cure and to address the challenges of everyone affected by MS. To fulfill this mission, the Society funds cutting-edge research, drives change through advocacy, facilitates professional education, collaborates with MS organizations around the world, and provides programs and services designed to help people with MS and their families move their lives forward. In 2012 alone, through its home office and 50-state network of chapters, the Society devoted $122.1 million to programs and services that assisted more than one million people. To move us closer to a world free of MS, the Society also invested $43.3 million to support more than 350 new and ongoing research projects around the world. The Society is dedicated to achieving a world free of MS. Join the movement at www.nationalMSsociety.org.