Courtney Galiano reveals MS diagnosis

"My legs went numb on the season-seven tour" that ran September to November 2010, she told Newsday exclusively. "I thought I had herniated a disc or pinched a nerve, so I kind of ignored it. I didn't want to be taken off the tour, and I'm a dancer -- I beat up my body for a living. It's nothing. Then it lasted till about March, and when I touched my chin to my chest, I felt this electricity thing. And later I learned this was called Lhermitte's sign, and it's a symptom of MS."

The progressive neurological disease, for which there is treatment but no cure, was not diagnosed sooner, Galiano says, "because all of these symptoms -- whether numbness or tingling or dizziness or loss of balance -- overlap with so many other diseases." To help raise awareness, the 23-year-old alumna of Commack High School is making her diagnosis public and funneling a portion of the registration fees for The Beat, her dance workshop, into a foundation she and her brother created, Beat MS.

In addition, she and a team of family, friends and fans are participating in the Walk MS fundraiser in Los Angeles on Sunday , to support the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. "The teachers at Commack High School, the Commack Cougarettes, families from all over Commack have donated," she says. "I wish there were a bigger, better, more amazing phrase than 'thank you!' " Those wishing to donate can do so at NationalMSSociety.org/goto/CourtneyG.

As for her prognosis, "I have relapse and remitting MS," the earliest stage, known as RRMS. She is far from needing a wheelchair, she says, and continues to dance professionally. "My doctor at [Weill] Cornell [Medical College], Dr. Susan Gauthier, is absolutely unbelievable and says the best thing I can do is to keep dancing. I have no choice," she says, "but to be optimistic and positive."