When Renton resident Scotia Brown was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, or MS, she was just one month away from delivering her third son.

“I think I was just kind of in denial about it,” she said in a recent interview. “And being so young, I was just about to have my son and I just didn’t want to come to the conclusion, like I really have this disease.”

It’s the conclusion some people come to at age 29, which is the average onset of MS. Brown was just 26 when she was diagnosed.

Now at 32, she’s in a different place, ready to share her story and help raise awareness about the disease. She will ride with about 2,000 other bicyclists in the Bike MS Deception Pass Classic Sept. 6 – 7 in Mount Vernon. Brown will take part in the I Ride with MS program, which specifically recognizes those riding with MS during the Bike MS event.

The event, which takes place nationwide on different weekends, is in support of the more than 400,000 people in the U.S. who live with multiple sclerosis.

According to event organizers, women are two to three times more likely to get it than men. It is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, resulting in loss of muscle control, vision, balance and sensation, according to webMD.

Brown has been in training for a year to prepare for the race and will ride 160 miles during the two-day period on the Perkins Coie Team.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “I just decided that this is going to be the year that I’m going to do it.”

It took her a little while to come to the reality that she has MS and embrace it, but now she said she’s taking it head on.

“I don’t have to be in a wheelchair; I don’t have to look like a regular MS patient,” she said. “I can have this disease, but still live an active and healthy lifestyle.”

Brown is participating in the Bike MS event to support a friend, who was recently diagnosed. Brown realized something wasn’t right when she started having minor symptoms like facial and body numbness and headaches. There were times when she was at a loss for words because her brain couldn’t think of what to say. She’s also had blurry eye-sight. Everyone’s symptoms look different with MS, she said.

Then she went to see a doctor, who confirmed it was multiple sclerosis.

“So, it was just the realization that, ‘OK, I have this disease,’” she said. “I have all the symptoms and there has to be a way where I can kind of take control of it and be healthy even though I have MS.”

Already an active person, Brown has incorporated more fitness into her routine and changed her diet. She now bikes, runs and lifts weights to stay healthy. Her doctor advised her to remove gluten from her diet and she has discovered an eating regimen called the “paleo diet” that centers on fruits, vegetables and lean proteins. Brown has chosen to forego the typical MS meds.

“So, having a clean good diet and eating whole foods, not processed foods, sugary foods – things like that – and also incorporating fitness has really helped me maintain my symptoms,” Brown said.

She feels more energized having taken gluten out of her diet and her symptoms have diminished because of the actions she’s taken, she said.

And she enjoys what bicycling has added to her life.

“It’s a way that I can have me time,” Brown said. “Being a mom of three boys, you really don’t have time to yourself. Time to get out and just enjoy myself and get into the nice breeze and weather. I can think.”

Now she wants to be an inspiration to women, who are more likely to get the disease.

“I think having my voice heard is a lot better than silencing it, not saying things and kind of keeping it under wraps.”

For more information about the event or the Multiple Sclerosis Society, visit http://bikewas.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageNavigator/BIKE_WAS_Landing_Page.html.