Gerardo Garcia Perales

Home: Madrid, Spain
Age: 42
Diagnosis: 1986
Occupation: Madrid MS Society President, and Spain MS Society Treasurer


I was diagnosed with MS in 1986 when I was 22. I had studied accounting and had been working for a private company since 1980. At the time I was diagnosed, I became a member of the National MS Society in Spain.

I became severely affected in my legs very early but fought to keep on walking on my own feet with different treatments. Then, as MS progressed, I started to use sticks first, and later on in 1994, I became a wheelchair user.

In 1995 I was already a pensioner. It was then that I decided to keep on working for people with MS as a volunteer, and became an active member of the National Society. I have used my accounting background to work as treasurer for the Society for many years.

However, my main contributions to people with MS are focussed in the local Madrid area. I became the Madrid Society Treasurer in 1996 and in 2000, I was elected President of the Madrid MS Association and I am still developing this role. The way I have chosen to face my MS is to work for other people with MS, putting aside my own MS problems.

I am pleased to have worked on many projects for people with MS. A highlight has been creating a day centre for people with MS in November 2000 focussed on severely affected people. The centre has 25 places that are financed by local social services. The centre’s multidisciplinary team, made up of different professionals, covers the needs of people with MS. We have also created a rehabilitation centre in Madrid where members with MS can receive occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech therapy, and have access to a psychologist and neuro-psychologist.

Another successful project for people who cannot travel to a centre is the creation of an at-home service for severely affected MS patients. This currently helps 54 patients per week. Three professionals (physiotherapists/occupational therapists) develop this service around Madrid with a vehicle that is owned by the Madrid Society. In 2005, the Madrid MS Association was awarded with a national prize for this service.
Overall, 243 patients per week are treated just in Madrid.

I have also been involved in co-founding FADEMM, a federation that groups different MS Societies within the Madrid community and covers the needs of different towns. I have also enjoyed helping to raise awareness of the MS Society within the disability community in Madrid. For example in 1996 I became a Board member of FAMMA (a federation of disability entities in Madrid that includes up to 40 different associations).

I am very proud of working with a group of people who were able to reach the objective of getting a place where rehabilitation, both, physical and psychological, could be offered. This has helped not only the people with MS, but also their families. I would like to suggest that all people with MS who are reading this would gain much by getting in contact with organisations with experience of MS.