MuckFest MS Recently Featured on ABC’s “The Bachelor”

The fundraising event MuckFest MS, which takes place this year between April and November in 11 different cities across the U.S. to help support the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and patients who live with multiple sclerosis, was recently featured on an episode of ABC’s TV reality series The Bachelor. The episode, which aired Monday, January 26 at 8/7c on ABC, featured the show’s stars exploring the event. To date, the episode marks one of the highest-profile promotional highlights for the MuckFest event, and will help to spread the word about increased MS advocacy and fundraising.

The Bachelor episode featured bachelor Chris Soules among the contestants participating in the MuckFest MS mud-and-obstacle 5K course. The new bachelor, who has quickly become known as “Prince Farming,” entered the show last season, introducing himself to Bachelorette Andi Dorfman. In the new episode, the dreamboat farmer and wealthy businessman from Iowa raced through the mud along with the show’s contestants (all donning wedding dresses).

As Chris Soules continues the search for his soul mate in what is now the 19th edition of The Bachelor, the publicity that the episode gave to Muck Fest MS, according to a press release from the Society, was indeed invaluable for MS awareness and advocacy. The event, which is designed to allow virtually anyone to compete, aims to provide a fun experience amid mountains of mud and obstacles, as well as an engaging way to help fundraising for the National MS Society. The first city to host the event is Boston, between April 25 and 26, followed by Denver, on May 16, and Philadelphia from May 30 to 31. New Jersey, St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago, Twin Cities, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston are also planned to host MuckFest MS this year as well.

More information and singing up is available on the MuchFest MS website.

The funds raised will be used by the organization to support patients who suffer from MS, a chronic and disabling disease of the central nervous system that affects the normal flow of information within the brain and between and the body. Symptoms can be unpredictable and include numbness, tingling, blindness and even paralysis. Even though there is no cure for the disease, scientists and research companies have been working towards improved therapies and quality of life for patients.

Therefore, the National MS Society has also been focused on enhancing scientific projects that offer promising evidence for potential treatments for MS. Among them is the work of California-based, late-preclinical stage pharmaceutical company Bionure, Inc, which has signed a Sponsored Research Agreement with the organization’s Fast Forward program, a division of the Society dedicated to commercial research and development for novel solutions for MS.