Christine Sinclair pouring floats, flipping burgers in Vancouver for MS awareness
Team Canada's captain opens up about her mother's diagnosis and struggle with MS
Christine Sinclair has been a leader on the soccer pitch since she first joined an all-star team at the age of 11. But today she's championing an issue even closer to her heart by flipping burgers and serving root beer floats.
The 34-year-old captain of the national women's soccer team is opening up about how multiple sclerosis stole her mother's mobility and today she'll be serving customers at A&W to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
Sinclair, who is from Burnaby, was 11 years old when her mother, Sandra Sinclair, was diagnosed with MS, an autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system.
"I had no idea what MS was. It was kind of shocking, seeing [my] mom being so upset and torn over something that I didn't really understand," she told Stephen Quinn, guest host of The Early Edition.
She recalled how her mother, a young track and field athlete herself, used to coach her kids' soccer games before being diagnosed with MS
"I'll never forget the one summer at the lake; all of a sudden she couldn't water ski, and I'm like, 'What's happening?'"
Highest rate of MS in the world
MS attacks myelin, the protective covering that surrounds the body's nerves.
It can cause a long list of debilitating and painful symptoms, including extreme fatigue, vision problems and cognitive impairment.
Sinclair said her mom's mind is as sharp as ever, which makes it more difficult to accept that she is in a wheelchair and in a care facility where many of the residents are about 20 years older than her.
Seeing the disease slowly take her mother's independence motivated Sinclair to partner with the MS Society of Canada for the organization's Burgers to Beat MS fundraising campaign.
"You realize that the mom you once knew, this athletic person, was slowly being taken away," she said.
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She hopes her efforts serving up burgers and floats at the A&W on Cambie and Broadway will help raise money for awareness and research.
Canada has the highest rate of MS in the world, according to the MS Society of Canada, which estimates 1 in 340 Canadians are living with the disease.
Burgers to Beat MS is the largest fundraising event of the year for the society and has raised $10 million since it was first held nine years ago.
With files from CBC Radio One's The Early Edition.