How Giving Back Helps This Man Take Charge Of His Illness

When Randy Stein was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he was far from surprised.

After experiencing numbness in his hands for years, and later symptoms that he easily linked to the disease from his own online medical searches, he only needed the doctors to confirm his suspicions. However, he has far from allowed MS to control his life. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society volunteer joined HuffPost Live host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani today to discuss how his advocacy work for the organization gave him the sense of empowerment he needed after his diagnosis.

"Right away after I was diagnosed, I contacted the MS society and they helped me out with some books to learn more about the disease, and I started going to some educational seminars they were having," said Stein. "It became something for me to do. I didn't work for about four and a half years and I wanted to do something, and it made sense to do something that gave back to an organization that was helping me."

His involvement with the National MS Society allowed him to take charge of his disease and help others also affected by MS at the same time.

"I think it's important with any disease to get out there, do the efficacy efforts, get involved, get in front of the local and national politicians, let them know your disease exists, this is how it affects you, and how different pieces of legislation they may be working on are going to affect your quality of life," he said.

To hear more about how Stein channeled his struggle with MS into positive volunteer work, watch the full HuffPost live clip in the video above.