A Northern Michigan woman is battling a neurological disease and needs your help.
Susan Kegerreis has Charcot Marie Tooth Disease.
It affects one out of every 2,500 people.
Now she can’t walk and is trying to raise money for a wheelchair and a car she can actually use.
Already more than three thousand dollars has poured in.
"My childhood was full of a lot of surgeries, corrective surgeries like bone grafts and tendon transfers and fusions," Susan said.
Susan Kegerreis tries to live her life as normally as possible.
"Right now I’m home bound without assistance I stopped driving in 2009 when I couldn’t move my foot from the gas peddle to the break peddle," Susan said.
Susan, diagnosed with Charcot Marie Tooth Disease, a rare neurological condition when she was just five years old.
Over the past decade symptoms including weakness, pain, and loss of balance have only gotten worse.
"What it does is destroy the myelin sheath of the nerve so it doesn’t allow nerves to fire anymore and the impulse from the brain can’t reach the muscles," Susan said.
It’s a struggle that until now she’s worked to quietly overcome.
"It’s just tough. It’s been a big strain it’s just tough it’s too much burden for anyone to take on for a family, or a married couple," she said.
And even though its robbed her of her ability to walk, Susan refuses to let it stand in her way.
She’s asking for help to buy an all terrain wheelchair and accessible van.
"When she asked for help it was kind of heartbreaking because for such a strong person to ask for help that’s pretty powerful. So I was very excited to be able to help her," Joy VanDrie said.
So she can go back to working with her passion, permaculture, and with her husband who is a forester.
"I’ve got too much stuff to do I want to go out and travel and meet people and go places and learn new things and not stay inside," Susan said.
With an ultimate goal of finishing a project three years in the making, an 8 acre food forest, with handicap accessible trails.
In the end it’s Susan’s struggles to live a normal life that have made her extraordinary.
"Thank you. From the bottom of my heart," Susan said.
You can find a link to donate
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