Seattle Chocolate's Koppelman battles M.S. one stroke at a time.

In March 2001, just six months after his wedding, Seattle Chocolate regional vice president, Eric Koppelman, now 32, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. His health slowly deteriorated to the point where walking even 100 yards was a struggle. Medication, diet and various forms of exercise

Then early this year, at the suggestion of his wife, Laurel, an accomplished tri-athlete, Koppelman started swimming three or four times a week. Within a few weeks, his strength and coordination improved, and Koppelman, a life-long competitive athlete, entered a .5 mile race. He finished respectably in the middle of the pack of non-disabled swimmers, and an idea was born. Koppelman decided to continue competing, and beyond that, to use the races as a way to raise money for M.S. research. He established the Swim for a Cure Foundation, had a Web site created and mapped out a race schedule. He's accomplished all this while working and being dad to a new daughter, who was born in April.

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If you'd like to help support the cause, donations payable to Swim for a Cure Foundation may be mailed to 70 Battery Place, Suite 115, New York, N.Y., 10280. Or check out the 2006 race schedule on the Web at www.swimforacure.org.