Raises Awareness and Hope for Multiple Sclerosis
Celebrities Including Olympians Carl Lewis, Mike Dodd and Summer Sanders, Cobi Jones (L.A. Galaxy), Zachery Bryan

http://finance.individual.com/display_news.asp?doc_id=CT2001261p6035&page=news

September 18, 2001  6:01am
Source: PR Newswire

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sep 18, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Turning the Tides on MS 2001, an extreme 38 mile international swim race from Catalina Island to Santa Monica, California, today announced the upcoming 3rd Annual "Turning the Tides on Multiple Sclerosis" event. The event starts on Saturday, September 29, 2001 on Catalina Island and finishes in Santa Monica at approximately 12:00pm on Sunday, September 30th, followed by an awards ceremony at 2:00pm on that same day.

Turning the Tides on MS is an international celebration of "Courage Over Adversity" and is a mission to raise awareness and funds to find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis. In 1993, an amateur athlete from England named Mike Taylor became stricken with this debilitating disease. He and his best friend, Chris Vincent, began organizing long distance swims throughout the world to raise awareness of MS and funds towards MS research. The event was brought to California in 1999 with great success.

"Turning the Tides was created specifically to give hope and motivation to those affected by this terrible disease as well as to raise funds and highlight ground breaking research to the world. MS affects 2.3 million people worldwide and more than 400,000 people in the United States alone, that's more than one person diagnosed every hour," said Dr. Christopher Vincent, co-founder and chair of the Turning the Tides event. "When Mike was diagnosed with MS, we all felt hopeless. I knew we needed to do something to help him feel like we could both make a difference and hence the creation of this terrific and challenging event."

Other events taking place in conjunction with Turning the Tides on MS include a fundraising gala dinner on Saturday, September 29th, which will feature a silent auction. The Swim will culminate with a celebration at the beach in Santa Monica where festivities will include a celebrity beach volleyball game from 12:00-2:00pm featuring: Olympians Carl Lewis and Mike Dodd, Cobi Jones (L.A. Galaxy), Zachery Bryan (Home Improvement, Boston Public), Reggie Theus (Fox Sports), and Ford Models Owen McKibbon and Andrew Smith, among others. The beach celebration will be broadcast live by KIIS FM and Star 98.7.

Sponsors for Turning the Tides on MS have jumped on board to support this worthy cause and include: Cingular Wireless, Kinko's, the Los Angeles Kings, Bombardier, Fiji Water, SoBE, Robeks Juice, Coca-Cola, Powerade, Wahoo's Fish Tacos, Naked Juice, the Loew's Santa Monica Beach Hotel in Santa Monica, Chevron, Compaq, Body Glove, US Bank, Teva Neuroscience, Vairg, LTU airlines and FT Business.

"We have sponsored the MS Swim for the past three years and each year we find it more rewarding to watch the teams swim into the Santa Monica beach," said Steve Jaeger of Cingular Wireless. "To witness the swimmers overcome the challenges of the ocean for 38 miles and know that a member of each team is swimming with this debilitating disease, gives us hope that the challenge of finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis is obtainable. We are proud to sponsor this worthy event and cause."

The race includes six international teams made up of world-class athletes and a member that suffers from MS. This year the teams include the following:

United States (MS Swim 1999 and 2000 Champions), Canada, Portugal, Germany, England, Brazil

Highlights of the teams include:

• Olympic Gold Medallist Summer Sanders will kayak for the U.S. team
• Mary Hill is the U.S. team member swimming with MS.
• Duncan Goodhugh, British Team, Olympic Gold Medallist in 1974 and prior world record holder in the 100 meter breast stroke.
• Brazilian team members obtained both 2nd and 9th place in the world championships in Japan last month.
• Former Model Nicolai Floeth, afflicted with MS, will be swimming for Germany for the third year.
• Portugal team features 3 two-time Olympians.