I'm walking in memory of mom, Gerri Lamartina.  My mom passed away of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD)  April 19, 2016.  CJD is a rare degenerative brain disease that is incurable and always fatal. It is caused by prions, which build up in the brain, damaging brain cells.  Death usually occurs within 1 year of onset of illness, but for my mom, it was just months.  In fall of 2015 mom started to get more forgetful and a bit more confused that normal, but nothing we thought was too serious.  My dad took her to the doctor and they did a baseline Dimentia test and said it was something they would monitor over time.  Month after month it was getting progressivly worse, but the doctors didn't know what was going on.  By January, she was finally able to get an MRI and doctors first told us they suspected CJD.  It was the most devastating news our family could have heard.  Those 3 letters changed our world.  A disease we had never heard of was now front and center of our lives.  The next 3 months were incredibly hard.  More test, more doctors telling us there was nothing they could do for my mom.  Our once healthy, active and vibrant mom was deterorating before our eyes.  My mom was rapidly declining by the day and there was nothing we could to stop it.  She continued to lose her memory and she eventually lost her ability to walk, talk, eat but through it all she radiated with her beautiful smile and laugh.  

We are hopeful through donations and further research, there will one day be a cure for CJD and no other familly will have to suffer and go through what we went through.