Ninfa Monarres Madrid

Ninfa Monarres Madrid is 50 years old. She is a mother of three and a young grandmother. Ninfa has never stopped working and helping other people. She began working at the age of six, became a mother at 15 and finished her junior high education through an open learning system. She studied childcare and worked for the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) where she worked her way up to the role of Director. However, before she assumed the position, MS forced her to cut short her professional development.

She was diagnosed with relapse remitting MS in 1999 and moved to her daughter’s house in the USA. During a relapse she could not walk and felt depressed. In the meantime she met and married her second husband Manuel, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, and, no matter how difficult taking care of each other could potentially be, they moved back to Mexico and settled in Guadalajara, Jalisco, where they established a regional MS association.

Since December 2008, Ninfa has been the Director of the Jalisco MS Association and previously held the post of President. As President she increased the association’s membership from 25 to 300. She continues to fundraise for the construction of a rehabilitation centre in Guadalajara, where more than 1,000 patients with MS will receive therapy. Every week, she visits homes of MS patients to help them in adapting their houses to make their family interaction easier.



In 2005, due to Ninfa's campaigning, Copaxone was included in the IMSS' basic products list. In 2007, to address the lack of quality medicines in her city, she led a peer group sit-in for three months.

Between 2006 and 2008 Ninfa also held the post of President of the La Federación Mexicana de Esclerosis Múltiple (EMMEX) where she opened seven new regional associations in Morelos, Zamora, Mérida, Irapuato, Sinaloa, Obregón and Querétaro. She is currently the Secretary of ULASEM (the Latin America MS Association).




Ninfa says "MS is for me as a sister. Sometimes I fight with her and other times I thank her for being with me because without her I wouldn't have met so many people".

Her other achievements are listed below:

• 'Red Ciudadana' Association, Woman of the Year 2007


• 2007 Friar Antonio Alcalde Award given to the Jalisco Association for its outstanding work as an NGO
  
• November 2007 MSIF Profile of the Month
  
• October 2008, organisation of the Third National MS Patients Meeting in Guadalajara, attended by more than 600 people with MS
  
• 2009 International Women's Day, given public recognition by the Jalisco Government for her work and a financial contribution towards the association

2009 Nominations

The judges of the award would like to express their thanks, admiration and support to all the nominees, all of whom receive an MSIF certificate acknowledging their nomination:

• Gabriel Laufer, Argentina


• Dr Greg Brotherson, Australia


• Henri Goethals, Belgium


• Brian Duck, Canada


• Harry Wermuth, Germany


• Sigurbjörg Ármannsdóttir, Iceland


• Jyoti Ronghe, India


• Rachida Tennouri, Morocco


• Wout Kalkman, Netherlands (in memorandum)


• Ana Chereque Gutiérrez, Peru


• Marek Siwek, Poland


• Aleksandr Popov, Russia


• Anna Pavlovičová, Slovakia


• Carles Riquelme, Spain


• Fabiana Pérez Montañés, Uruguay