A NEW approach to improving services for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) has been launched in Darlington.

The Multiple Sclerosis Steering Group, consisting of healthcare professionals, patients, carers and social services, will meet monthly to ensure national care requirements are being met.

The group has produced a factsheet detailing services available for MS patients and carers, and its long-term aim is to streamline access to medical services, social care and occupational and physiotherapies.

Councillor Eleanor Lister, Darlington Borough Council's cabinet member for social services, said: "It's a ground-breaking approach. Previously patients were dealt with by various services but there was no joined-up thinking. The committee recognises we all need to work together to provide the best possible care."

MS affects about 85,000 people in the country, mainly aged 20 to 40. The disease attacks nerve fibres, interfering with messages to and from the brain.

Group member Liz Blackman was diagnosed with MS in 1987 and is now helping the committee identify the needs of patients.

She said: "You try to live your life normally, but MS creeps up on you suddenly. I'm here to give the committee an insight into the needs of MS sufferers."

David Moss, 27, has been living with MS for the past six years.

The fatigue and shaking brought on by the disease became so severe that he was forced to move out of the family home in Darlington and into sheltered accommodation in Rockcliffe Court, Hurworth.

His parents, Christine and Bill Moss, said living with the disease has been a struggle.

Mrs Moss, a member of the MS society, said: "David was fine at first and we were told that thousands of people with MS lived normal lives, but he got worse and worse. It is such a cruel disease."