The eagerly awaited Annual Picnic of Pune Chapter was held on 19 November 2022 at Memane Farm on the outskirts of Pune, after a lapse of two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. BNY Mellon Volunteers assisted all PwMS on arrival to the farm. Everybody enjoyed the three-course breakfast and played some rounds of Tambola. This was followed by an in-house magic show which immensely pleased the crowd. Post the magic show a sumptuous lunch was served. After lunch, everyone assembled to play a game called ‘Tol Mol Ke Bol’, where participants had to judge the approximate weight and prize of the grocery item shown by the anchor. The game was followed by music and dance. DJ music made the atmosphere very joyful and energetic. A PwMS with difficulty in normal movements also did a solo dance to the music and won a round of applause from the crowd. Several children of PwMS danced, jumped onto the stage and displayed their antics to the music. The group then broke to engage in the other attractions of Memane farm such as Mehendi, temporary tattoo, fortune telling, horse riding, bullock cart ride, etc. The crowd then reassembled and moved to the location of the ‘Hurda Party’, considered one of the good attractions. People were served with tender roasted ‘Jawar’ along with many other items such as fresh boiled corn on the cob, boiled tender green chickpeas, groundnuts, etc. The whole event was well supported by BNY Mellon volunteers and highly appreciated by MSSI. It was an enjoyable and successful day with fantastic feedback from PwMS.

The annual physiotherapy camp of the Pune Chapter was held on 16 October 2022 at Jayantrao and Indutai Tilak College of Physiotherapy, Gultekdi, Pune. BNY Mellon employees volunteered for the camp and assisted PwMS. About 100 people including PwMS, caregivers, volunteers and physiotherapy students attended the camp. Dr. Rasika, Professor of Physiotherapy at the college introduced Dr. Bhalerao, Neuro Physiotherapist and Asha Merchant, Hon. Secretary. Asha Merchant spoke briefly about the Pune highlighting the activities and services MSSI provides to persons with MS. Dr. Bhalerao talked about MS and cleared some myths. According to him, every problem has a solution and he totally changed the perspective of MS persons about MS. Prof. Rasika concluded the programme with a vote of thanks and presentation of a token gift to Dr. Bhalerao. After the talk, PwMS were helped by college students with various exercises performed with the help of therapy equipment. They emphasised the importance and benefits of physiotherapy and how important is its role in MS. Dr. Bhalerao made a surprise announcement to offer free physiotherapy treatment of any kind to all PwMS who are registered with MSSI Pune Chapter.

The month of February ushers in spring in India and what better time could there be to observe India MS Day and so the first Sunday of February every year is celebrated as the India MS Day.

MSSI PUNE Chapter with Indian Medical Association (IMA) Pune organised a Walkathon of about 2 kms at Tilak Road. The Walkathon with IMA was worked upon by MSSI IMSD Representative (National) Mrs. Jyoti Ronghe and Ms. Gayatri Joshi.

President of IMA Pune, Dr. Sanjay Patil, Ex-President, Dr. Padma Iyer , Secretary IMA Pune, Dr. Variyani, MSSI committee members, few volunteers, 3 MS Persons, around 10 IMA doctors were there for the Walkathon. Everybody gathered at the IMA House at 7.30 am and registered themselves. The participants wore Bibs and caps with IMSD theme # know Mltiple Sclerosis.

The walk started at 8 am and Dr. Sanjay Patil & Dr.Variyani addressed the gathering.  The attendees held placards of MSSI throughout the walk for about an hour.

Reshma Valliapan, a renowned activist who runs an organisation called the Red Door also supported us in the Walkathon.  She discussed the various disabilities of MS Persons with our committee members.

After walking for 2 kms, everybody gathered back at the IMA House at 9.30 am. There was breakfast arranged by IMA Pune for all the participants.  Everyone enjoyed the delicious meal and disbursed thereafter around 10.30 am.

MSSI Pune is thankful to the wonderful team of IMA who supported us heartedly.

A picnic was organised at Empress Garden on Sunday 17^th November 2019. Around 74 people consisting of MSPs, their caregivers, dependent children of MSPs, Committee members, Staff members, invitees and BNY Mellon volunteers attended the picnic.

MSPs who were not in a position to travel to the picnic spot on their own were picked up and dropped back home by BNY volunteers.

Volunteers from BNY Mellon arrived at the picnic spot right on time, 9.30 am and helped MS Persons reached Nana Nani Park. The volunteer was available throughout the picnic duration and helped our MS Persons in many ways.

Our founder chairperson Mrs Mini Grant’s friend Mr Suresh Pingale, a member of Garden Committee in Pune allotted us Nana Nani Park and sponsored delicious breakfast for participants.

Breakfast was served at about 10.30 am. Volunteers helped in serving the breakfast. This was followed by a diverse range of activities which included singing performances by MSPs and interested picnickers, Antakshari, Housie game and other unique games. Prizes were also given to the winners.

17^th November, being a birth anniversary of Late Dady C. Dady who is one of our major donors, a Cake cutting ceremony was organised. Mrs Mini Grant kindly accepted the request of all the members to perform the cake cutting ceremony.

Lunch was served at 1.30 pm. Participants, especially MSPs while having lunch interacted with each other. They shared their views, concerns with one another and were very happy to be in the group once again. They all really enjoyed this outing which gave them an opportunity to go away from home, meet old acquaintances, and get engaged in non-routine activities.MSPs and their caregivers thoroughly enjoyed this fun-filled picnic. The picnic concluded at 4.00 pm.

Ms. Gayatri Joshi, Mrs. Jyoti Ronghe and Mr. Laxman Iyer (Committee Member, Pune Chapter) attended 24 hrs relay Marathon at Magarpatta City on 5th October 2019, organized by Running Punters.

The Marathon started at 7.00 hrs. And concluded on 6th October 2019 at 7.00 hrs. Ms.Gayatri Joshi participated in the Marathon with MSSI bib and completed run of 700 metres. Ms.Gayatri was live on Facebook Page of Running Punters where she mentioned that she is running for spreading awareness and fund raising. Ms. Gayatri was felicitated by Running Punters team with a special mention at the felicitation ceremony on 6th October 2019.

Mrs. Ronghe shared information about MS and MSSI with participants and viewers. She also distributed brochures and souvenirs among them. Mr. Laxman Iyer also shared word with viewers about MSSI and MS. Both of them did appeal for donations to participants and viewers.

Running Punters have shared MSSI link for donation which is mentioned on MSSI website. They have taken up this as a long term project to support the cause.

MSSI Pune had organised an awareness event at SGS Mall, Pune to mark the World MS Day, on Saturday 25^th May 2019 between 5.00 pm and 7.00 pm.

At the outset, our Hon. Secretary Mrs Asha welcomed all present and thanked everyone for participating in Event. Then she invited Mrs Mini Grant, Founder Chairperson to brief the audience on MSSI and their activities.

The audience included MSPs, caregivers, volunteers, donors, committee members, staff members and Mall visitors. In all about 55 people were present at the event besides Mall visitors.

Mrs Mini Grant spoke about MSSI activities and the help MSSI provides to MS Persons: medicines, physiotherapy, counselling etc.

Anurag Monks, Professional Musicians presented beautiful old and new Bollywood songs. The audience was enthralled by their band and performance.

MS person Mr. Karan Jagwani who used to be a football player shared his views on MS. Though he gave up playing, never lost his courage and took medicines etc as per Doctors advice. The message he conveyed to MSPs was that one should not lose hope but fight MS courageously, and that’s what helped him remain fit. His talk was very motivational and was appreciated by the audience and MSPs.

MSSI Brochures were distributed to Mall visitors. Many of Mall visitors inquired about the MS. This event really helped us in creating awareness of MS.

Committee members felicitated MS Persons by handing over the gift.

Mrs. Asha Merchant proposed a vote of thanks.  She thanked committee members, MSPs, caregivers and staff members for their participation. She also expressed gratitude to SGS Mall for allowing us to utilise their premises for this event. The event ended at 7.30 pm.       

On 19^th of May, 2019 MSSI Pune participated at the Indian Medical Association’s symposium at IMA House to create awareness about MS. About 80 Doctors were present. In spite of the busy schedule of IMA symposium, they were kind enough to allow us a slot of 15 minutes to talk on MS and MSSI’s activities.

Asha Merchant briefed the Doctors present with the help of powerpoint presentation the role of MSSI and kind of events it undertakes to create awareness on MS. The events include Walkathon, Musical program at Mall, Physiotherapy camp at medical college; Medical camps at Ruby Hall Clinic, a picnic for MSPs and their caregivers to ensure that they remain socially connected with one another, fundraising event and donors meet.

Madhuri Kothavale addressed the audience in Marathi and talked about MSSI, its affiliation with MSIF UK, No of Chapters in India and their objectives in terms of providing financial help for medication, counselling, providing physiotherapy, nursing assistance to bedridden needy MS Patients, visits by the Patient coordinator to MSPs to understand their special needs.

Anjali Vyas, being an MS Person herself interacted with Doctors present and talked about her MS and the way she bravely faced the difficulties arising out this disease and kept herself fit and happy.

MSSI distributed brochures to all the Doctors. There was a photo session with the senior doctors. The program ended with personal interaction with different doctors followed by lunch provided by IMA.

Event:  A Marathi comedy play “Chal Tuzi seat pakki”
Date: Sunday, 17^th March 2019
Venue: Tilak Smarak Mandir, Tilak road, Pune.
Time: 12.30pm to 4.30pm

Highlights:

The program started with the screening of a short video prepared on MS person Gayatri Joshi highlighting the invisible aspect of Multiple Sclerosis. Gayatri herself then came on stage and spoke about MS and its symptoms. Laxman Iyer then invited Chairperson Mr Banerjee on stage, who gave a brief talk on MSSI activities.  Dr Padma Iyer, President of IMA (Indian medical association) Pune was the Chief Guest on this occasion. In her speech, she appreciated the work done by MSSI Pune. and also briefed the audience about IMA. Our Chairperson Mr. Banerjee and Dr Padma Iyer jointly released the souvenir. The play started at 1:00 pm. The humorous script had the audience in splits since the beginning. A short Intermission of nearly 10 minutes was observed at 2.30 pm. During the interval, short videos of film stars with a positive message for MS persons were played. Souvenirs were distributed to the audience by the volunteers.  The play was very entertaining and had a profound message.

After the play, all the artists and Dr Padma Iyer were felicitated. This was followed by the vote of thanks by Committee member Anjali Vyas.

Committee members Gayatri Joshi and Laxman Iyer were the MOCs for this event.

All the MSPs, BNY Mellon volunteers, Committee members and staff who had come for the program interacted with the artists by going on the stage. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

To commemorate India MS Day, A Bike Rally was organised on Sunday, 3rd February 2019. Bikers, each group having about 50 Bikers were flagged off from three different locations in Pune.

Sarasbaug – MSP – Jyoti Ronghe/ Anjali Vyas
Sambhaji Park – MSP – Gayatrie Joshi
Kalyani Nagar – MSP- Anjali Gijare/ Rohit Nigade

The flagging off was done by MSPs at all three locations. Each Biker group travelled about 12 Kms and reached final destination Bund Garden around 10 am.

In all, there were about 200 participants at Bund Garden which included 150 bikers (Over 120 bikers from BNY Mellon) committee members, staff members, BNY Mellon Volunteers, MSPs and caregivers.

At Bund Garden, committee members welcomed all the Bikers and thanked them for their enthusiastic participation. Group photo session with all bikers wearing bandanas was followed by the release of 500 orange colour balloons.

Later all participants were requested to move on to Sr. Citizen Club Hall at Bund Garden. Our founder Chairperson Mrs Mini Grant welcomed all the participants. Mr Firoz Khoja our Admin. Officer sang a Bhakti Geet to commence the program. Mrs Jyoti Ronghe, Ms Gayatri Joshi and Ms Anjali Vyas our very active committee members and MS Persons shared their views on MS ailment and explained to the audience how they are keeping themselves happy in spite of this ailment and fighting the disease.

This was followed by a “Lavani folk dance” by Meera Dalvi and her troupe who had been deputed by Dr Panpatil and his team from I&B Ministry Pune. They enthralled the audience for about 45 minutes with their lively performance.

Gifts were handed over to the performers as a token of appreciation

The event ended at about 12 noon with the distribution of snacks and Lemon Lassi to all the participants present.

The Camp started at 10 am. Ruby Hall Clinic had provided wheelchairs, walkers and stretchers for patients as required. Two ward boys of Ruby Hall Clinic also helped MSPs in moving them to cheek up areas.

There were five MS Persons from outside Pune and three of the local MS Persons were brought in Ambulance provided by OM Ambulance services.

Dr Rajas Deshpande had allotted specific duties to all the physiotherapy students.

There were 17 volunteers of BNY Mellon who helped MSPs in going to different Specialists, getting prescribed medicines from the chemist, serving the food to patients at lunchtime etc. Some BNY Mellon volunteers picked up and dropped MSPs to and from their residence on their request. One of our committee member Mr. Laxman Iyer also helped in bringing/dropping one MSP at the medical camp.

All the MSPs on entering were registered at the MSSI registration desk. They were given gifts by MSSI at the time of registration. The reimbursement cheques of medical aid, physiotherapy, medicines were also handed over at the Registration Desk. Thereafter MS persons went to another desk where MSPs history data forms were filled by the physiotherapy students and they guided them to different specialists for checkups.

The physiotherapists guided each patient individually and helped them perform exercises. The dietician guided every patient individually and gave a diet chart.

Dr. Rajas Deshpande apprised the MSPs regarding substantial price reduction on certain medicines.  Pharmaceutical companies namely Sun Pharma and Cipla were presently giving these Discounts.  He informed that it was a very significant and beneficial move as the price of certain medication had significantly dropped, making it more affordable. However, medicines should be taken only as per prescription.

Later students gave presentations on the benefits of Physiotherapy. A Dance therapist also presented dance movements which can help wheelchair-bound and bedridden MSPs.

All Specialists were felicitated with gifts sponsored by MSSI Pune.

Five MS persons and their caregivers were also felicitated

Representatives of Pharmaceutical companies were felicitated by Dr. Deshpande.

• MS Persons felicitated – Geetanjali Jagtap, Poonam Nagpure, Afroz Shaikh, Parmeet Khanuja, Sidhram Landge.

All MSPs were reimbursed their conveyance expenses including ambulance hiring charges of Om ambulance services.

Medicines prescribed by the doctors were purchased by MSSI Pune and provided to the MSPs. Outstation patients were given medicines for 3 months.  Some medicines were given free by pharmaceutical companies at Ruby hall itself.

Tea / Coffee was served to all at around 11.00 am

A sumptuous buffet lunch organized by “Little Italy” was served to all participants The lunch was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company at the request of Dr. Rajas Deshpande.