I had a note from South Berwick resident Kirsten Wilder this week. Kirsten’s family story reminded me of all the quiet struggles and sacrifices that South Berwick citizens face each day. The 236diner is happy to help publicize the Wilder family’s participation in the Jingle Bell Run/Walk. (P.S. Kirsten’s is the email that my cat Emma deleted.)–Molly
Here is Kirsten’s note:
My family, friends and I are participating in the Arthritis Foundation’s Jingle Bell Run/Walk next Saturday, November 22nd in Portsmouth. We are attempting to raise awareness and funds. Would it be possible to put a little post on your site? We are a South Berwick family with 2 kids in Central and 1 in Great Works. Our youngest has arthritis and this is one way for us to help create a positive out of such a negative. Last year our team raised over $1000 and created a new family tradition. The link to my fundraising page is http://portsmouthjbr.kintera.org/kirsten
Read Kirsten’s letter about why her family participates in the Jingle Bell Run/Walk:
It’s Jingle Time. Bells will be ringing this holiday season as thousands of runners and walkers hit the nation’s pavements, pathways and parks this winter to fight arthritis, the nation’s most common cause of disability.
Arthritis is a disease I have always known. As a small child I loved to gently trace my grandma’s swollen knuckles as I snuggled with her in our big brown chair to watch TV after dinner. Over the years I’ve watched her knuckles cripple her hands and cause her to hide them. I watched her religiously follow an alcohol soaked raisin “cure” for years only to see the arthritis take over her knee. She was forced to give up dancing, golf and finally walking. This, I was told, was an expected part of aging.
Next, arthritis attacked my mother. She was young, early forties, but her mother had arthritis and her grandmother had arthritis so, to her, this was a natural part of getting older. It was a shame it started so early though. Her fingers swelled and stiffened and her feet throbbed, but when she twisted her knee arthritis found a vulnerable spot and went to work. She is too young to be so hobbled.
When arthritis found my daughter just after her third birthday, I realized something had to stop it. We have to stop it. Katherine is four now and plays hard. She rides horses and swims for therapy, but plays soccer, dances and does gymnastics for fun. She has days she needs help standing up and must be carried but they are outnumbered by the days she skips instead of walks. She takes four different medicines in the morning and one at night. One is a low dose chemotherapy drug. Soon she will begin taking this as a weekly injection. These medicines keep her moving and keep arthritis from destroying her joints. Without the years and years of research already done by scientists, doctors would be standing by watching her little body being attacked by her own immune system, watching her joints grow bent, her bones grow unevenly, watching her become immobile and pain racked with only an asprin to offer her. This was the case just twenty or thirty years ago.
We are grateful every day she swallows her medicines. We are grateful every day she runs to us after pre-school. We are grateful that year after year concerned citizens step up to raise awareness and raise funds to find the medicines to treat kids like Katherine. There is still so much more to be done though. The medicines kids are taking put a heavy toll on their young bodies. Side effects include headaches and stomach aches as well as mood swings, weight loss or gain, and sleep changes. These drugs can cause heart damage, liver damage and kidney damage. We need safer meds and need a better understanding of the effects of the medications we already have. Even more, we need a cure. We need a cure for the kids that never get to experience a pain free day, who sit on the sidelines while their friends play. We also need a cure for our mothers and grandmothers who’ve spent their adulthood growing steadily more limited by pain and degeneration.
Please help the doctors and scientists who dedicate their lives to helping those with arthritis. Please give them the tools they need to change the path of this disease. Please join us November 22nd in Portsmouth to show your support. Or, if you are able, make a donation to the Arthritis Foundation through our team “The Wilder Kats” and think of how grateful all the mothers, daughters and grandchildren will be.
Won’t you sponsor me in my effort to raise funds to fight arthritis? Arthritis affects more than 46 million Americans, including 300,000 children, including my daughter Katherine, costing the U.S economy over $128 billion annually. The Arthritis Foundation needs our help.
Please visit my Web page to join my team or make a secure, online contribution to help me reach my fundraising goal. The donations I raise will help fund the Arthritis Foundation’s mission to prevent, control and cure arthritis.
If you contributed your time or money last year, thank you. If you have sent you support over this past year and a half – thank you, thank you. This year please also consider forwarding this letter on to your friends and family who might be interested in supporting us.
Thank you,
Kirsten Wilder
Mom to Katherine “Kat” Wilder
age 4, spondyloarthropathy
