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US Army soldier battling multiple sclerosis

Posted at 6:59 PM, May 17, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-17 21:17:58-04

COLORADO SPRINGS – Saturday morning is theannual Walk MS in Colorado Springs.

The event is designed to raise awareness and money to find a cure for multiple sclerosis.
It’s also an opportunity to honor the “MS warriors” and their families who battle this every day.

One such warrior is U.S. Army soldier Alex Toney.
He wants to let others know they’re not alone in this battle, and he wants to encourage his fellow MS warriors to fight back and live life to the fullest.

Around this time last year, Toney was stationed in South Korea.
After working out one day, he started feeling a tingling sensation in his legs.

“The tingling sensation and the numbness started to get worse. and a week went by and I woke up and I went paralyzed from the waist down. It was a very terrifying experience,” Toney described.
“I was rubbing on my legs trying to wake them up.”

Though he regained feeling later, his MS diagnosis came in October.
Chronic fatigue and other debilitating symptoms followed.

“I started really feeling depressed and if it wasn’t for family and friends and the physicians, you know, I don’t think I would’ve been able to get better as fast as I did,” Toney noted.
“They were able to give me that kick in the butt and say ‘You can do this, you can still live a productive life, you can still work out.'”

Now, he wants to bring that motivation to others by attending Walk MS.

“I just want to join those other MS warriors out there,” Toney said.
“They’re walking towards a cure.”

Even without a cure, Toney is proving MS can be defeated.

“I am just attacking it,” he said.
“Just like in the military, I feel like I am winning the war against MS. I know that every repetition or every step that I make, that I’m getting better as a person and this is not the end.”

Toney says his goals for the future are to keep spreading awareness about MS and to keep serving on active duty in the U.S. Army.