All Joyce Braudaway wanted to do was cross the finish line.

It was in sight, right over the last hill.

“Are you all right?” her husband Dean Braudaway said while driving alongside her.

“Yeah, we’re going to make it,” Braudaway said. “I’m going to make it.”

Braudaway finished her three-mile trek through the streets of Joplin and crossed the finish line happy and a little exhausted. She picked up a few refreshments and a new T-shirt, walked over to a message board and read her parent’s message they had just posted.

“We would change places with you in a heart beat.”

Although it meant the world to Braudaway to finish the race, it was her parent’s words that made sense and shed a little more light over her illness.

“It meant so much to me to know that they would do that,” Braudaway said. “It was amazing all the love that was there.”

Braudaway wasn’t walking in any competition. She wasn’t expecting any shiny medals either.

She was raising money to help find a cure for multiple sclerosis – a disease she battles every day.

Everything in Braudaway’s life was on track in 1998. She graduated from Missouri Southern with a grade-point-average close to 4.0, and was named Southern’s next student account manager.

But she knew something was wrong when, at times, her legs would lose feeling and her vision became blurred.

“Everything was shutting down,” Braudaway said.

She was scared, even more so when doctors explained to her that the CAT-scan results indicated she had lesions on her brain.

“I didn’t know enough about it,” she said. “I didn’t know what it was.”

Although Braudaway was afraid about having a disease with no cure, she wanted to continue working to keep her mind fresh, and if anything, stay busy.

Every morning Dean would drive her to work and help her to the office. Her mobility was deteriorating so much that she was confined to her chair for most of of the day.

The pain in her legs was painful, but it never compared to the frustration Braudaway dealt with when she tried to help her children work on homework. She loved helping them anyway possible, but sometimes her MS would kick in and stall her mind from basic functions.

“Mobility wasn’t the hardest thing,” she said. “I’m a perfectionist. There are times when I knew the answer, but I couldn’t figure it out.”

Her family has dealt with the news relatively well. They talk open with each other about the disease and its effects.

“The kids ask a lot of questions,” she said. “They’re learning as we go.”

Braudaway’s parents, however, had a more difficult time accepting their daughter’s illness.

“Mom and Dad had a hard time with it,” she said. “They weren’t here on a daily basis. They had a lot of questions.”

The stress and the physical strain of her body at work became too much for her to handle and forced her to resign.

“Part of me beats me up,” she said. “Sometimes, I feel like I gave up too soon.”

She knows, however, in the end, it was the right decision.

“Stress affects everything else, it would affect MS too,” she said.

As the sun broke through the clouds April 12, Braudaway and more than 60 people set out for three-and six-mile walks through Joplin.

“It was a good day for walking,” she said.

Braudaway’s family was there for support – including Aunt Thelma, an 84-year-old woman who raised $200 by herself and finished the walk. Aunt Pauline, who is battling cancer, was there as well.

“It was incredible,” she said. “It meant so much to know that they would be there.”

All together, close to $10,000 was raised for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

“I’ve learned that the little things mean a lot,” she said.

While the disease has affected her physically and emotionally, Braudaway still has faith in God that he will take care of her and help her overcome the painful disease.

When she receives the opportunity, however, she plans to have a few words for the big guy.

“When I get there at those pearly gates and meet him, I will have a list of questions,” she said.

Day after day, Braudaway receives blank looks. When she tells people she has MS, oftentimes people aren’t informed or don’t know how to respond.

Many ask her if she’s angry.

“Obviously, I’m not thrilled, but it could be worse,” she said.

Although she’s affected by the disease every moment of her life, Braudaway still can find happiness knowing that she has a great family.

Having her family’s love and support gives her the quality of life she wants and the life that she knows she deserves.

“It’s a different day for every MS patient,” she said. “But, I will still be here to see my kids graduate.”