Selma Blair went undiagnosed with MS for 40 years; she's working with charity to find a cure

Selma Blair is joining the Race to Erase MS.

The actress has been open about her struggles living with multiple sclerosis since being diagnosed in 2018. Earlier this month, she revealed she went undiagnosed for 40 years despite showing symptoms.

“If you’re a boy with those symptoms, you get an MRI. If you’re a girl, you’re called ‘crazy,’” she told British Vogue. “I looked like a ‘normal’ girl to them, but I was disabled this whole time.”

She has since partnered with Race to Erase MS, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing treatment options for patients and ultimately finding a cure. Founder Nancy Davis told Fox News Digital how proud she is of Blair, noting how far she’s come.

Selma Blair, who was diagnosed with MS in 2018, often walks with a cane. (Steve Granitz/FilmMagic I Todd Williamson/E! Entertainment/NBC via Getty Images)

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Davis started the charity in 1993 after she was diagnosed with MS, an autoimmune disease that damages nerves, which interferes with brain signals reaching certain parts of the body.

She recalled receiving “such negativity” when she was first diagnosed. Davis was 33 years old with three kids and said she was essentially told “I would never walk again.”

She went for a second and third opinion and “listened to the research going on at the time” by doctors from Yale, Harvard, Cleveland, San Francisco and Johns Hopkins. She soon realized they “were all doing identical research but were convinced they were the only one doing that study.” The doctors, however, couldn’t accept that as truth when Davis told them.

“Today, there’s these B-cell depleting drugs that are completely knocking everything out of the ballpark,” she explained. “If you are newly diagnosed with MS and you go on … right away that suppresses your B cells. It stops the MS in its tracks. It’s pretty darn exciting.”

The medications do not help those who have had the disease many years, but Davis is excited to provide “a whole different future” for young people who are diagnosed today.

Throughout the charity’s 30-year existence, much has changed with treatments, most recently a drug that stops the disease in its tracks. (Race to Erase MS)

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“It’s such a devastating thing to say: ‘I’m going to never be able to live my life. I can’t be a parent. I can’t have my job. I can’t seek all the things I’ve been dreaming about forever,'” Davis said. “Today, you can. There’s so much hope, and it’s really exciting.”

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“When he was first diagnosed, Sharon contacted me, and she was very frantic because her son was newly diagnosed. And she had me really help them out in the very beginning,” Davis explained. “And now Jack is fabulous. Jack’s doing really, really well. They have both been so supportive.”

Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne’s son Jack was diagnosed with MS in 2012. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for EJAF)

Davis also recalled the very first Race to Erase MS event, which Dustin Hoffman attended.

Davis recalled Dustin Hoffman attending one of the first Race to Erase events at UCLA. (Race to Erase MS)

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“I’ve been so lucky with my MS. I’m doing really, really well,” Davis explained. “I thank God every day for that. I’m very positive. I do every positive kind of affirmation you can possibly do, because I have to see this through. And I’m excited [about] where I am today and where we are today and that we’re, gosh, having our 30th race.”