Sylvia Lawry (née: Friedman; born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, June 28, 1915) was a social campaigner on behalf of people with

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

. She founded the

National Multiple Sclerosis Society The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) is a nonprofit organization that was founded in New York City as the Association for Advancement of Research on Multiple Sclerosis on March 11, 1946 by Sylvia Lawry. Ms. Lawry was a lawyer looking fo ...

(United States) in 1947 and co-founded the

Multiple Sclerosis International Federation The Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF) was established in 1967 as an international body linking the activities of National MS societies around the world. The Federation seeks to work in worldwide partnership with Member Societies ...

in the same year. Lawry was at university studying law when her brother Bernard Friedman was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The family's experience prompted Lawry to place an advert in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' seeking others affected by the disease. She received 50 replies. Recognising the need for more research and information, she brought together 20 prominent research scientists and went on to form the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. In 1965 Lawry called a meeting in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria, to persuade more countries to join the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation. She was joined by

Shirley Temple Black Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple;While Temple occasionally used "Jane" as a middle name, her birth certificate reads "Shirley Temple". Her birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood shortly after she signed with Fox in ...

, who was also a campaigner for those affected by multiple sclerosis. The meeting was tense and there was some uncertainty in the room. The turning point came when Shirley Temple Black stood up:

'She looked around the room, making eye contact with many of the delegates. Then she asked, "What have you got to lose?" There really was no risk, she argued, financial or otherwise. "We're all here for the same reason," she insisted, "and that's to wipe out multiple sclerosis."

Bernard Friedman died of MS-related causes in 1973. Lawry knew that there were many other people with multiple sclerosis who needed help. She worked with Senator

Charles Tobey Charles William Tobey (July 22, 1880July 24, 1953) was an American politician, who was the 62nd governor of New Hampshire from 1929 to 1931, and a United States senator. Biography He was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of William Tobey, ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, whose daughter had MS, to lobby Congress. Eventually she and Tobey persuaded them to adopt legislation establishing what is now the

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). It conducts and funds research on brain and nervous system disorders and has a budget of just over US$2.03 billion. The ...

(NINDS). Lawry died on February 24, 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawry, Sylvia 1915 births 2001 deaths American health activists