Our history
Working to beat MS for 58 years.
In 1953, Richard Cave founded the MS Society. His wife Mary had MS and he was frustrated at the lack of treatments and support available, so he decided to do something about it.
He set up the first meeting of the Society at Chelsea Town Hall in West London, where a small group of people attended.
Today, the Society has 38,000 members and branches in every part of the UK. Richard’s work has inspired thousands of volunteers, supporters and staff members to make a difference to the lives people affected by MS.
Find out about some of our highlights from the last 58 years.
50s | 60s | 70s | 80s | 90s | 2000s
50s
1953 - Richard Cave hosts first ever MS Society meeting in Chelsea Town Hall, London.
1954 - Association of Scottish Branches formed
1956 - First Branches formed in Wales & Northern Ireland
1958 - Society establishes Research Fellowship Scheme and commits £18,363 to MS Research.
60s
1960 - BBC hosts TV appeal for MS Society
1962 - Society’s ‘Welfare Services Spending’ reaches £63,000 to help support and care for people affected by MS.
1967 - MS Society membership tops 18,000 people.
1964 - The 100th MS Society branch is established.
70s
1971 - First MS Society respite care centre opened at Leuchie in North Berwick.
1973 - The MS Society's research spending reaches £1,000,000.
80s
1983 - MS Society gives £1 million research grant for the purchase of the first MRI scanner in the world to be solely dedicated to MS research. The scanner changed the way MS was diagnosed.
1988 - The European MS Platform is launched, to lobby, raise awareness, and provide information.
90s
1991 - The MS Helpline is launched, offering support and information to anyone affected by MS. It now deals with 13,000 enquiries a year by phone and email.
1998 - Northern Ireland Society starts to build a new Resource Centre.
1998 - MS Society funds the MS Tissue Bank, the largest distributor of MS brain and spinal cord tissue to MS research in Europe.
1999 - MS Society launches the MS Nurses Programme to fund and develop much-needed MS nurse posts around the UK.
2000s
2000 - MS Society hosts largest MS Lobby in Parliament, 'Ending the Lottery of Care'.
2002 - MS Society Essentials series is launched, responding to topics people with MS wanted information about. The series would go on to expand into an award-winning set of 28 titles.
2003 - Society sets up the Research Network to ensure people affected by MS shape the MS Society’s research programme.
2005 - The Society awards £1,428,674 to the Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair.
2007 - Launch of the Symptom Relief Research Initiative to raise awareness and fund research into symptom management for people with MS.
2008 - Society invests over £7 million into new MS research – the largest investment to date.
2008 - Research investment includes over £2.5m in a state-of-the-art 3-Tesla MRI scanner at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. The scanner is dedicated solely to MS research.
2009 - Launch of the first project into childhood MS in the UK in partnership with the children’s charity Action Medical Research.
MS Society funded research into vitamin D shows a direct link between vitamin D and a gene linked with MS.
2010 - MS Society partners with UK Stem Cell Foundation to fund up to £1 million worth of stem cell research.
2010 - MS Society-funded research breakthrough shows that damage to myelin can be reversed using stem cells.
2011 - Launch of the first ever MS Register to measure the impact of MS.
