As recently communicated, we’re pleased to have our new Strategy for 2020-24 agreed.

Our ambitions are high and we have some really exciting plans that will make a difference to the lives of people affected by MS.

To deliver these plans effectively we need to make sure we have the right people and the right structure in place. This applies to the whole organisation, including our leadership.

As our current strategy ‘Together to Beat MS’ comes to an end this year, we’ll launch our next strategy 2020-2024 next year.

We spoke to lots of people in our MS community, including over 800 volunteers and members, about what’s important, what we should build on and what doesn’t work well, to help develop the new strategy.

Our new strategy will build on all the progress we’ve made so far – in MS research, services and support and campaigning for change - but will also require us to change and adapt so that we can make more of a difference for everyone living with MS.

With a general election happening on 12 December, we want to take this chance to raise our voices about changes on things that matter to people affected by MS.

Our priorities for the next UK government:

• Make Personal Independence Payment (PIP) make sense
• Make social care work for everyone affected by MS
• Access to cannabis based medicines for people with MS

Together we can raise our voices and make a difference. We’d love your help to:

Our Stop MS appeal is aiming to raise £100 million to find treatments for everyone living with MS, and we’ve had an overwhelming response so far from volunteers and supporters!

You may have seen in the news recently that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved Sativex (a cannabis based medicinal spray) to be widely available on the NHS in England for people with MS who experience muscle spasms, when other treatments haven’t worked.

We’ve been campaigning for access to Sativex across the UK. A couple of months ago, hundreds of people with MS shared their experiences with NICE about why medicinal cannabis is so important. It’s brilliant NICE has finally listened.

With a General Election due to take place on Thursday 12 December, it’s a chance for us to raise our voices about the changes we want to see for people affected by MS.

However, the Lobbying Act, introduced in 2014, set legal restrictions around what charities can and can’t do during an election period. This is to ensure that no individual or organisation can have influence over an election. As the MS Society, our staff, and you, our wonderful volunteers, we have to be really careful to not appear to be influencing the way anyone may vote.

Find out what's changed in the latest Group Handbook update.