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A Good Friend I will never forget the day my dear friend, Ann, called to tell me that her daughter Kaitlin had been diagnosed with LQTS. She had been hospitalized after fainting at a track meet and was diagnosed with the disorder. Ann tried to explain it to me—but I ended up spending a lot of time on the Internet reading about it in order to understand it more completely. When her other children were tested, it was discovered that her son Ryan also had LQTS. After crying with Ann and for her beautiful children and thanking God that they had been diagnosed before something worse had happened I began to feel very helpless as a friend. Chicken soup and chocolate chip cookies just wasn't going to make this "all better". How could I help in a meaningful way? And then it came to me; I wanted to hold a benefit that would raise money for research and promote awareness of this disorder. After all, having enough money to fund research is the only way to cure or find treatments for LQTS. Ryan and Kaitlin (and the rest of their family) are very involved in and loved by the competitive swimming community in our area. So, a lot of their friends were devastated by the news that Ryan and Kaitlin would no longer be allowed to compete. They, too, wanted to do something! At first, Ann was nervous about my plan for a walk/run benefit. She did not want her kids to be earmarked as "different". So, I organized the benefit in the name of LQTS—not specifically for Ryan and Kaitlin. Admittedly, I was nervous too—I never do things like this! I am not usually "the person in charge." But I must tell you, once I got started, all of my plans just fell into place. A park in our area graciously allowed me to use their facility, my husband and son designed a t-shirt, and my daughters donated their time to working the morning of the benefit. A fruit and vegetable market in our area donated bananas, a dear friend donated chair massages and bottled water, and the t-shirt company I contacted gave us a deal on our shirts. I sent registration forms to everyone I could think of within the swimming community. (I decided to start small this year and will hopefully expand next year!) And then something very exciting happened. The registration forms started coming in! When April 13 finally arrived it was raining and very gloomy. But my husband and I, along with our three children, headed off to the park any way. As we began to set up, the rain stopped. Although the day never turned sunny and beautiful we had a wonderful turnout. Not only were we able to send money to the SADS foundation but to the Mayo Foundation as well! All of my fears and worries were put to rest, and I saw that all of our hard work had paid off! Afterwards, a friend of mine described this experience as God putting me on a boat in the middle of a body of water (He gave me this idea) and not giving me directions (I had no idea how to do this) but, nonetheless, steering me in the right direction. My hope, and challenge, is for those of us who have not been personally affected by this disorder to step out and help. Those who have been personally affected may find it too difficult to do for themselves. They are busy just trying to deal with this health issue every single day—my prayer is that we will see better and better treatments and hopefully a cure. Until then, my prayers are with all of you, that you will not be afraid to step out and help those you love in a meaningful way. |
