Michelle Amerie said the new research centres will provide a new focus and hope. (Courtesy: Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada)

The pace of research on multiple sclerosis in Canada is expected to accelerate significantly, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada said Thursday in announcing five new research and training centres across the country.

For the next three years, each centre will receive $100,000 per year to fund collaborative training and research activities, with the goal of discovering a cure for MS as quickly as possible.

"I have always held on to a hope, a hope knowing that one they are going to find out what it is that causes MS and ultimately the cure," said Michelle Amerie, 43, of Toronto.

"Without having that hope, without realizing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel so to speak, then I might as well close my door. I want my door wide open."

Each centre will be linked to universities and teaching hospitals in one of five regions. Researchers and trainees affiliated with each centre will collaborate through conferences, regional workshops, online tools and inter-lab exchanges.

The five centres' regions will be:

• Western-Pacific, covering B.C. and Saskatchewan.
• Alberta.
• Manitoba-Ontario, excluding Ottawa.
• Quebec-Ottawa.
• Atlantic (all four provinces in Atlantic Canada).

Amerie called the announcement of the new research centres "exciting news" for the 75,000 people like her who are diagnosed with MS in Canada, as well as their loved ones and friends.

Amerie experienced her first symptom of MS at 16 and was completely diagnosed four years later.

Always an adventurous traveller, Amerie uses a manual wheelchair to help keep her energy up throughout the day.

She loves to scuba dive, and has gone skydiving and mountain climbing in a specially designed wheelchair she compared to a wheelbarrow and a rickshaw.

The disease is mysterious, and people with MS don't know how they will feel on any given day, Amerie noted.

She urged people to be aware of the progress that is being made in MS research, adding the new research centres funded by the society will provide a new focus.

Canada has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world. The chronic, often disabling disease attacks the brain and spinal cord, and is the most common neurological disease in young adults in Canada.