Kathy Andries has trouble lifting her legs to negotiate one step. It's a compelling reason for wanting to create awareness of a controversial treatment known to give those suffering from multiple sclerosis the chance to walk again.

Andries has had multiple sclerosis (MS) since she was 11-years-old, but wasn't diagnosed until 1996 at the age of 39.

MS, which often disables the central nervous system (CNS) of the brain and spinal cord, attacks the myelin, a protective covering wrapped around the nerves.

It's a disease that has left Andries, now 53, in a wheelchair on bad days and using a walker most every other day.

She quit working four years ago when the MS caught up to her.

"I knew then, wow, this is not good," she said.

But Andries said a hotly debated treatment known as CCVSI liberation has been performed on a fellow MS sufferer and has made a big difference .

"I don't like not being able to walk and move," Andries said. "And this treatment could help me walk again. My biggest motivation would have to be my granddaughter. She is just starting to walk and I would love to be able to take her hand and walk with her."

Andries has invited anyone in the area to the Royal Canadian Legion in St. Thomas on Nov. 17 at 11 a.m., to 2 p.m., to hear about Vicky Butler's experience with chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI), a syndrome in which the flow of blood in the cervical and thoracic veins, - from the CNS to the heart - is compromised and less efficient.

The theory proposed by Dr. Paulo Zamboni is that insufficient venous blood flow promotes development of brain dysfunction, especially multiple sclerosis, according to LiberationTreatmentCVSI.com.

According to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, reports of a possible association between insufficient vein drainage and MS doesn't mean MS is caused by CCSVI.

"Based on what has been published so far, it can only be said that MS may occur in association with impaired venous drainage of the central nervous system," reads the MSSC website. "This impairment, if truly present, could cause MS, but it is also possible that it is incidental to the disease."