When she was 2 years old, Blosberg’s dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis — an autoimmune disease that disrupts the central nervous system. But rather than feeling defeated by the diagnosis, Blosberg says that’s when her dad and mom decided that they weren’t going to let MS stop them from living their lives and experiencing things as a family. “We just learned to do it with MS,” she says.
13 years later, the disease would become even more personal. When Blosberg was in the eight grade, she noticed that her hand felt “a little strange,” she recalls, like it had a glove on top of it. Blosberg says the symptoms she was experiencing felt “familiar” because they “really looked a lot like things that my dad was experiencing,” adding: “We knew what the MS symptoms were.”
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She adds that the diagnosis was also frightening. “It was scary — knowing that I had seen my dad giving himself injections for 13 years at that point and the struggles that he faced, knowing that that was in my future.”
She realized she needed to connect with other teenagers who had MS and truly understood what she was going through. So Blosberg reached out to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society — where her father had volunteered for years — but at the time, Blosberg says they didn’t know of any teens with MS.diagnosis.”
It all started with a hobby: Blosberg had always loved knitting, but that became too painful after she developed MS. So after a friend taught her how to make sock monkeys, she decided to make one for herself, using an orange sock — the hue that represents MS — and naming it Oscar. Blosberg eventually started making sock monkeys for other kids and teens with MS so they would feel less alone.
The organization grew from there. The nonprofit has sent nearly 500 care packages to young people around the world, each containing one of Oscar’s handmade “buddies” — a smaller version of the original Oscar — along with hosting camps for families and teens with MS pre-COVID. “No one has to fight alone,” she says.