“My Journey’s Companion” is initiated to inform the community about Multiple Sclerosis and raise awareness and to create an environment of collaboration. It is a versatile and multi-channel set of projects aiming the MS patients to access current scientific information easily. This project established as a result of collaboration of Multiple Sclerosis Society of Turkey and Novartis, is run website centered. Meanwhile various operations are performed such as training meetings for the patients, publishing books consisting of the patients’ stories, theater plays etc. Each operation performed under the framework of “My Journey’s Companion” is placed in yolarkadasimsin.com website, which is the digital platform of the project. The contents are generated according to the recent and real necessities.

Research and preparation phases of “My Journey’s Companion” Project required a long process. Primarily, researches were conducted regarding the requirements of MS patients in Turkey and contents that will meet these requirements were prepared with the assistance of specialists. The specialist, patient and patient relative videos making out the web site were prepared first and blog articles were compiled. Afterwards, viral videos shot with the celebrities raised awareness about the sickness and accelerated the flow inside the web site. In the project where the importance of direct contact with patients is highlighted, tens of cities visited with the Tour That Makes You Smile and more than 8 thousand people reached have intensified the awareness about the project.

All the stakeholders targeted in the beginning have been reached. (It is thought that there are 40 thousand MS patients in Turkey. Under the “My Journey’s Companion” Social Responsibility Project framework, 14.500 Patients and Patient Relatives have been contacted directly.)

A lasting portal is established where trustworthy information regarding MS can be shared.

The message that “MS patients might live a better life on community level” is shared with the community, being primarily the patients and their relatives.

“My Journey’s Companion” Social Responsibility Project was appreciated by Novartis Global and started being followed and supported.

Contributions were made for creating an agenda about MS. (32.190.667 people were reached through the use of Newspapers, TV and Digital Media)

As a result of the activities, it is seen as a result of the surveys performed with MS patients and their relatives that targets were highly achieved.