Ohio Support Group

TMA License Plates

We are beginning an effort to have a Transverse Myelitis Association license plate available in the state of Ohio.  What would this mean?  You could order a TMA plate the next time you need to register.  You would pay slightly more for your plates and the TMA would get $25.  Now how cool is that!  While you are being stopped for speeding on the interstate, you can educate the highway patrol officer about the rare neuroimmunologic disorders.  Actually, this is such an awesome opportunity for us to do important awareness, and I hope you will help me make this happen. 

We need 500 signatures of people who would purchase these plates.  Everyone in your household can sign the petition.  They are required to have a driver’s license and a plate registered on their car.  The signature does not count unless you provide all of the information required on the form.  I need your help circulating the petitions and collecting signatures.  If you are interested in making this happen, please either send me an email or write to me and I will send you a petition.  Please get as many signatures as possible and please feel free to make extra copies of the blank petition if you can obtain more signatures.  I can also send the petition to you as a pdf file.  When you have the petitions completed, please mail them to:

Sandy Siegel
The Transverse Myelitis Association
1787 Sutter Parkway
Powell OH 43065-8806

When I have 500 good signatures (with all of the information), I will ask my representative in the Ohio House to sponsor a bill to create these plates.  It is voted on in the house and senate and then is signed by the Governor.  We are going to do this!  When it happens, I will let everyone know with an email and with newsletter articles, so we can purchase the plates.  We have two years to purchase 500 plates or they will discontinue it.  We don’t have 500 members in Ohio, so we will need to ask family and friends to also purchase the plates.  Thank you for helping me make this happen.  It is a wonderful way for us to make people aware of transverse myelitis, neuromyelitis optica, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, optic neuritis and the TMA! 

ACP Collection Center at The Ohio State University

One of the best ways to facilitate research on TM, NMO, ADEM and ON is to participate in the Accelerated Cure Project.  The TMA supports this program by helping to fund enrollment of people with the rare neuroimmunologic disorders, we serve on the ACP scientific oversight committee, and we encourage research on TM, NMO, ADEM and ON from the repository. 

In order to enroll, you must be an adult.  If you have TM, ADEM, NMO, ON or MS, we need for you to enroll in the repository.  If you are a spouse, you can also enroll as a control.  Pauline and I have both enrolled in the ACP repository.  We need as many people as possible!  If we are going to help doctors learn about these disorders, you can’t wait for someone else to do this – it has to be you.  There just aren’t that many people with these disorders. 

To enroll, please get in touch with Lisa Hafer at the number below and she will explain the process to you.  It involves filling out a questionnaire and then coming to Ohio State to have a blood draw.

The Ohio State University Medical Center
Multiple Sclerosis Center
1654 Upham Drive, 445 Means Hall
Columbus, OH 43210
Principal investigator: Michael Racke, MD
Study coordinator: Lisa Hafer
Study coordinator phone: (614)293-7877
acp-study-director0807@acceleratedcure.org

Thank you!

Sandy Siegel
ssiegel@myelitis.org