Overcoming MS in action and the impact we create

We achieve our vision and strategic goals by providing:

Community: Overcoming MS Circles

Overcoming MS Circles are at the heart of what we do: inform, support and empower people living with MS. Overcoming MS Circles are a community of people supporting each other to make sustainable changes to their lifestyle to help their health, wellbeing and MS symptoms. Our voluntary groups (Circles) are a peer-to-peer support group network, led by voluntary group leaders (Ambassadors). Circles are run by people with MS, for people with MS. 

At the start of 2023, we had 98 active Circles providing support to 2,752 people living with MS across 28 countries. In 2022, we welcomed 10 new volunteer Ambassadors bringing our total to 110.

'Thanks to the Overcoming MS Circles, I have always felt supported and that there was someone I could turn to for a chit chat or for general 'what if' queries.'

Social media communities

Social media content: we empower people with MS to take control of their health and become hopeful about the future, including person-centred advice and support. We now have social media followers across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

MS Information and website

Our digital information offer focuses on providing accessible, diverse and practical resources that recognise the unique challenges people face. The majority of our digital content is developed with our community members and includes inspiring blogs, recipes and exercise programs. Our website visits average 33,000 every month. In 2022, we had 379,000 web visits with 1,156,000 page views. Our recipes attracted over 70,000 views, blogs – 100,000. Over 20,000 people are subscribed to our monthly newsletter.

The Overcoming MS book

The Overcoming MS book has proven over time to be a hugely popular guide for people with MS to become active participants in making decisions about their health. In 2022, we distributed over 1,000 free books in the UK and Ireland, with books also available in New Zealand and Australia.

The Living Well with MS podcast family

Our podcast series is one of our most popular and highly-rated offerings, ranking in the top 20% (by audience) of all podcasts. Developed to inspire and inform people living with MS, we include three types of episode: our flagship Living Well with MS; Coffee Break, profiling members of the global Overcoming MS community; and Ask Jack, featuring plant-based chef Jack McNulty answering cooking and food-related questions from our community. In 2022, our fourth season, we produced 34 episodes. The podcast has now reached over 300,000 downloads since its start and the average per episode is over 2,000 downloads. The podcast is available on all major podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where 93% of its reviews have garnered 5 stars.

'I love the Overcoming MS podcast. I found it very useful at the beginning when I was trying to teach my family and friends about what I was doing', Facebook follower, Oct 2020

Research

We have been developing a digital area on our website to host the latest research which our lifestyle interventions are based on and that showcase the health benefits of everyday actions, including diet, exercise and stress management.

Finding Hope with Overcoming MS Webinar Seasons

Following on from the success of the Refresh with Overcoming MS webinar season in 2021, we continued launching annual seasons of webinars. Finding Hope with Overcoming MS covered topics such as Women's Health, Living well with Progressive MS and interactive Ask Aaron sessions, giving people the opportunity to put questions to a neurologist. 965 people attended the 6 webinars across the year with over 3,000 playbacks and reaching over 40 countries. 

‘Thanks as always for being such a fabulous resource and support network! Just wanted to thank you for an informative uplifting event.’