Heroine of M.S. appeal

Press, 5 August 1978, Page 1

Heroine of M.S. appeal

Miss Lois Martin was the heroine of the Canterbury Multiple Sclerosis Society’s street appeal yesterday.

Miss Martin — a multiple sclerosis sufferer herself — was up at the crack of dawn and out collecting in her elec-trically-powered wheelchair near her home in Latimer Square. She later moved to Cathedral Square. By lunchtime she had raised more than $250 and by the time she stopped collecting, frozen with cold, at 4.30 p.m., she had collected more than $4OO. The appeal in Christ* church and Ashburton raised almost $7OOO. The total is expected to reach $BOOO when contributions from suburban areas and postal donations are counted on Monday, almost double the amount collected last year. Miss Martin’s spectacular success at fund-raising was largely because of her outgoing personality. Only the hard-hearted, deaf, or broke managed to pass her by without putting something in her collection box. One man mistakenly dropped his car keys in her money box along with his contribution. “You’re not getting them back. I’ll sell the car for multiple sclerosis funds,” she joked with him. But his keys were returned within the hour when her collection box was opened at the appeal headquarters in “The Press” building. Multiple sclerosis is a crippling progressive disease that strikes mainly young adults. There is no cure.