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In 2015 we launched our Stop MS Appeal, to raise £100 million and fund groundbreaking research.
Our Stop MS Appeal has been our biggest fundraising appeal ever. Over a 10 year period, we aimed to raise £100 million.
Our mission is to stop or slow MS progression for everyone. And we hope that the support of our community and these valuable funds will bring us closer to that goal!
Here's a look at just some of what we've achieved together, so far.

2015: It all starts here!
Phase 1 of the Stop MS Appeal is launched. Charitable trusts, companies and philanthropists help support early fundraising efforts.

2015: A key trial paves the way
The MS-SMART trial shows it’s possible to test multiple treatments for progressive MS at the same time, which helps speed up the testing process – and paves the way for designing the world's first clinical trials platform for MS.

2017: £25 million raised
The appeal gets off to a fantastic start, in the first two years we raise a quarter of our ten-year goal.

2019: the Stop MS Appeal goes public
And it starts with a bang!
We get great coverage across TV, radio and newspapers, plus lots of donated advertising space getting the word out there about MS research and how donations can help.

2019: First primary progressive MS treatment approved
NICE approves ocrelizumab for people with early primary progressive MS on the NHS. Not only did we campaign to make this happen, but research from our world-leading MS Society Tissue Bank provided samples and underpinning science to support its development.

2020: £50 million raised!
With incredible public support and involvement from our community we reach the halfway milestone!

2020: Promoting myelin repair possible in people with MS
Results from our CCMR1 trial show a drug developed to treat cancer, can help repair myelin in relapsing MS. This is a breakthrough that scientists say is critical to their goal of stopping MS. A new trial – CCMR2 - is planned to build on this work.

2020: New way to protect nerves discovered in mice
Researchers at our Centre of Excellence in Edinburgh find an existing diabetes drug can boost energy supplies in nerves with damaged myelin – and help protect them from further damage. The team go on to be awarded funding through the International Progressive MS Alliance to explore the drug’s potential as a future treatment for MS.

2021: Statin trial becomes largest ever academic-led trial for progressive MS
With nearly 1000 people with secondary progressive MS joining MS-STAT2, we show it’s possible to run large, national progressive MS trials. Unfortunately, results later show simvastatin does not slow disability progression, but the data will help advance our understanding of the biology of progressive MS.

2021: New links between smoking and MS progression uncovered
In a ground-breaking study, the UK MS Register and collaborators found when people with MS quit smoking, the rate at which their disability gets worse slows down. In fact, it slows to a rate that is in line with people who had never smoked.

2021: Treatments selected for testing in trials platform
Scientific and clinical experts spend several years reviewing and ranking hundreds of drugs with potential to slow disability progression. They recommend a shortlist of potential treatments, with two selected as the first to test in our new clinical trials platform. Both aim to protect nerves.

2022: First person joins new myelin repair trial
After lab research shows a combination of two drugs, already used safely in other conditions, boosted myelin repair in rats, the CCMR2 trial will test whether the same is true in the brains of people with relapsing MS.

2023: Octopus is launched
Building on the learnings from the MS-SMART and MS-STAT2 trials, we launch the multi-arm, multi-stage clinical trials platform ‘Octopus’ that could find treatments for progressive MS up to three times faster.

2023: £75 million raised!
With the support of our amazing community, we've raised £75 million!

2024: We move a step closer to personalised medicine in MS
The culmination of six years of research studying more than half a million brain cells, scientists at our Centre of Excellence in Edinburgh discover people with MS can be separated into four groups, based on how their cells behave.

2024: 1st Octopus milestone reached ahead of time
More than 375 people with MS join the first stage of the trial across 15 UK-wide sites (two months ahead of schedule), bringing potential treatment discoveries another step closer.

2025: £89.85 million raised!
Now let’s hit that ambitious £100 million target and continue to drive the MS treatment revolution forward.

2025: Myelin repair trial to announce results
Our CCMR2 myelin repair trial is in its last few months of collecting data from people with MS, and we're excited to find out the results later this year
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