Portage la Prairie is recognizing Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Awareness Month after Mayor Sharilyn Knox signed a proclamation to acknowledge the chronic, often disabling neurological disease.

Knox sat down with Andrea McCullough and Barb Van Walleghem representing the MS Society, as well as a local MS fundraising hero Gladys Green to make the proclamation on Tuesday.

"Everybody's got their own story, so it's nice to listen to people, it helps me understand what people are going through, and makes proclaiming things like MS Awareness Month important," explains the Portage Mayor.

It is estimated that 1 in 400 Canadians are affected by MS, according to MS Canada, including many people from the Portage region.

"We want to make sure that we get awareness out so they can continue to support people living with MS and also do the research to hopefully end MS someday," she says.

Knox notes that citizens should be more aware of what it takes to get diagnosed with MS and the symptoms, so we can fully understand what everyone is going through.