BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- Members of the Bridgewater State College volleyball team participated in the 2008 MS LifeLines Walk around the Charles River in Boston on Sunday in support of The National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

The BSC volleyball team raised over $2,000 in support of the important cause with donations coming from friends, family, and local and national businesses.

The five-mile walk, which started and finished at the Harvard University Athletic Complex on Soldiers Field Road, followed a route around the Charles River Basin.

In 2007, nearly 9,000 walkers registered for the Walk, which raised over $2 million. Eighty-five percent of monies raised by the Chapter fund vital MS education, support, advocacy and research. Overall, 17 walks take place this spring in Massachusetts and New Hampshire during April and May.

Multiple sclerosis interrupts the flow of information from the brain to the body and can stop people from moving forward in their lives. The progress, severity, and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are moving us closer to a world free of MS.

Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with more than twice as many women as men have the disease. MS affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S., and 2.5 million worldwide.