Help Me Break Through the Top of This Thermometer!
Goal: $750.00
Achieved: $1,005.00
My list grows longer
My team is Patti's Paladins, and I fight for my dear friend Patti Substelny, a brilliant economist and HR professional who once worked for a large bank. She puts her considerable energy towards social justice in our community.
I fight for my cousin Roger Kopsell, robbed by MS of his dearly loved career as a ship's captain. He's now a brilliant photographer in the Bay Area of San Francisco.
I fight for my friend River. She’s a mom, she’s an artist, and she’s a Registered Nurse who specialized in hospice care. I use both the past and present tenses in that sentence, not because I’m a negligent editor, but because they are both appropriate: she technically still is a nurse, but she is no longer able to serve in that capacity. A tragedy to her, certainly; but it is also a sad thing in this day and age when all hospitals (and hospices, especially!) are experiencing a shortage of nurses.
I fight for Cindy Charboneau. She's got MS, too; she's also got a Major League husband named Joe. Indians fans will remember Super Joe Charboneau, Rookie of the Year, 1980. MS doesn't care who you are or where you've been. If this disease gets you in its sights, there's no escaping it. Unless WE do something about it.
I am happy to say that MS defeats none of my champions, but it's important for us all to keep up the fight!
Sadly, every time I tell this story I add another person to the list of people for whom I ride.
And my list is growing longer...
Do you know what MS is?
Imagine the insulation around an electrical cord. We can't plug in an appliance without it! Well, the nerves in our brains have protective coatings called myelin that protect the 'messages' that travel along the Central Nervous System (CNS). MS degrades the myelin, disrupting the messages that travel along the CNS, creating a widely varying array of symptoms. Since your entire body is dependent on the CNS, you can imagine how catastrophic this can be. Numbness are tingling are two symptoms; however, loss of balance, blindness, paralysis, and memory loss are also common symptoms.
MS robs a person of quality of life during life. You watch your body betray you, and there's nothing to do about it. It hits when you should be at your most productive.
It's terrifying to be diagnosed. It's heartbreaking and infuriating to watch it happen to someone you love. We can find a cure. Please help us.
Please Sponsor Me and Join the Movement
We don't know what causes MS. We don't know if it's genetic or environmental or a combination or something else.
We want it stopped. Because MS surely stops people.
We need a COMMUNITY SPIRIT of "WE'LL ALL WORK THROUGH THIS TOGETHER". I can't wait for someone else to start it. Change starts with me.
You know, if it truly does take a village to raise a child, the child isn't abandoned upon reaching a majority age. The community continues to be a nurturing factor. What started at the cradle should continue straight through to the grave. We have to remember that, and practice it until we get it right!
11 years ago, Patti was an aerobics instructor. She did it for fun and for fitness, it was a part-time job, and she was really good at it. Among other things, MS attacked her balance. Now she relies on her walker, and three years ago she got her first wheelchair. THAT makes me angry -- that her life has changed so drastically in such a short time. THAT makes me want to fight all the harder for a cure, and in the meantime, for better, more effective treatments for those currently living with the disease.
Roger was a ship’s captain for Hornblower Cruises, providing people with gorgeous vistas of the Bay area and performing weddings. These were things very dear to him. This was his life, and when you look at his photographs (http://flickr.com/photos/cmadir/), you can see the draw the water still has for him. Roger’s photographs are breathtaking; please visit his Flickr site and leave him some messages. I am proud of him that nothing keeps him down. He’s really quite a guy.
River provided people at the end of life with comfort, companionship, and compassionate care. She was a blessing to family members who were unable to be at their loved one’s bedside at all the times they wanted to be; a hospice nurse is a special angel at a very dear time. This disease robbed her of her livelihood. It robbed her patients and their families of a needed sensitive hand and word at a desperately, irreplaceably, delicate time of life. I know she takes comfort in her family and her strong creative drive. We do need to reach out and care for the caregivers, especially when they so dearly need it, as in River’s case.
These are just three stories of many thousands. I need to help. I need to support them any way I can. Will you please join me?
