Dear family and close friends,

My mother is a selfless, loving, resilient, and get-it-done woman who has dedicated her life to her family and loved ones.  After a year and a half of tests and a few misdiagnoses, she was diagnosed in February with Creutzfeldt-Jakobs Disease (CJD).  CJD is terminal, with no effective treatment or cure.  Our entire family has been devasted by this in so many different ways, and it's been an incredibly difficult year.  But we do appreciate the love, support, well wishes, check-ins, thoughts, and prayers that have come our way. 

The CJD Foundation has really helped me and my family with understanding my mother's illness, exploring options on how to best provide for her care, helping manage both her physical and cognitive symptoms, and providing a monthly support group to help us get through this.  The foundation also referred my mom to the National Prion Disease Pathology and Surveillance Center's CJD research program, where we have one-on-one access to its director, Dr. Brian Appleby, a nationally recognized specialist on the disease.

It is for these reasons that I was inspired to participate in the CJD Foundation's 2020 Virtual Strides for CJD under my team Strides for Evelyn.  Please show your support by making a donation of any size, this month, in the effort to reach my personal fundraising goal.  Proceeds raised will support medical education, family support, and research programs.  Donations can be made through this form.  To provide a little incentive, I will match the next $500 raised.  If your employer matches donations, please consider requesting a match to complement your personal contribution and help our cause even more.  

I realize these are hard times though, so if you can't donate, I completely understand (no pressure, really!).  I would still appreciate your thoughts and my mother would very much appreciate your prayers.  Either way, walk, run, or just do something active with me this month, virtually and at your convenience, to please show support.  Wear purple if you can or your CJD t-shirt (I have a couple left if you're interested!).  Send me the pic and/or the foundation requests that you post a pic to the CJD page to be included in the virtual library, and/or post it to your social media to help spread prion disease awareness with the following hashtags #Strides4CJD, #CurePrionDisease, #CJDFoundation, and #Strides4Evelyn.  Please also forward this email to anyone you think would be interested in helping this cause.

Thank you so much for your thoughts and support through this difficult time.

Theresa