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  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Norwich Woman’s Life Can Change At Any Moment

By Melissa A. Saranitzky, Communications Coordinator

NORWICH, Conn. - Doris Dubra knew her daughter’s life would never be the same. After witnessing several days of Alexandra Brown’s struggle to lift her legs and inability to use her right arm, it was impossible to deny what she already knew in her heart.

“I had no doubts Alex had multiple sclerosis,” said Dubra, who had watched her own mother battle the effects of the disease. “I couldn’t help but picture my daughter’s life and the struggles that awaited her.”

Dubra’s mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the mid-1940’s when very little was known about the disease.

“My mother was diagnosed with MS soon after I was born,” recalled Dubra, now 61. “I always felt it was my fault she was ill. I’d come home from school and she’d be on the floor, having fallen out of a chair because the MS caused her to lose her sight. Doctors would say her illness was due to ‘hysteria’ and she was causing her own symptoms. My mother was even prescribed ‘oxygen therapy,’ where she’d breathe from tanks of pure oxygen for hours on end.”

Brown, now 32, who was an oncology nurse at the time, recalled that week when she first experienced symptoms.

“When I wrote a phone number during that first exacerbation, my handwriting was the same as my grandmother’s,” said Brown. “I was hoping it was a brain tumor because it was at least curable. My son, Joshua, wasn’t even a year old. I had a lot of life before me. It wasn’t long before I knew I was in my grandmother’s shoes.”

More than 6,000 Connecticut residents, like Brown, battle multiple sclerosis, a potentially debilitating disease affecting the central nervous system. Symptoms can include numbness in the limbs, a debilitating sensitivity to heat, extreme fatigue, difficulties with vision and speech, stiffness and, in severe cases, total paralysis. The progress, severity, and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot be predicted and there currently is no cure for multiple sclerosis.

“Losing my life to MS wasn’t an option,” Brown said. “I turned to the National MS Society, Greater Connecticut Chapter for support and guidance.”

Dubra remembered when she first saw the materials from the chapter. “I was impressed by the wealth of available information,” she said. “There were many treatment options, which gave Alex the ability to make choices. It was a relief to know the disease that affected my mother is now being conquered with awareness, research and treatments.”

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society was established when Dubra was still a child. When society founder, Sylvia Lawry, learned her brother was diagnosed with MS in 1946, she realized how little information was available about the disease. Lawry’s efforts to unite those affected by MS began a worldwide effort to battle the disease.

To date, the society has invested $500 million on research-related programs since its founding, which has contributed toward significant progress to find treatments and better diagnosis, rehabilitation and symptomatic therapy for people with all forms of MS. 

“My mother’s MS took a huge toll on our family,” Dubra added. “My siblings and I didn’t know how MS affected her moods. After all these years, we’ve just begun to discuss what our childhood was like. I’m grateful that nowadays people can talk about MS and how it affects every family member involved.”

Brown learned of several treatment options and learned more about her diagnosis, relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis, which is one of four types of MS.

“My grandmother had secondary progressive MS, and I thought there was only one type of MS,” said Brown. “I was actually relieved to learn how my MS differed from my grandmother’s.”

Almost five years after her diagnosis, Brown’s daily life has turned out better than she or her mother first imagined. “Alex can do everything she used to do,” said Dubra with pride.

Brown’s drug therapy, thus far, has proven successful. “I’m lucky to have had only minor symptoms since my initial diagnosis,” she recalls. “I know my life could change at any time. I couldn’t do it without my husband, Eric, my son, Joshua, and my mother. They are my support every day.”

Brown has continued to work as a nurse at William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Conn., and is very open about the affects of the disease with her son, Joshua, who is almost 6 years old.

“I’ve been honest with him (Joshua) since he was old enough to understand that Mommy could end up in a wheelchair,” said Brown. “He’s been involved with chapter events since he was a toddler and is empathic toward people with disabilities.”

In 2004, Brown and Dubra became involved with the Greater Connecticut Chapter’s MS Walk site in Woodstock, Conn. Brown formed a walk team, My Support, and both mother and daughter joined the walk site planning committee.

“The Greater Connecticut Chapter was a huge source of support and guidance, and we wanted to do more to battle multiple sclerosis,” Brown said. “The MS Walk event was the perfect place to start.”

Their hard work has paid off. The 2006 Woodstock MS Walk attracted more than 280 individuals from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. The Woodstock walk site raised more than $30,000 to support the efforts to find a cause, new treatments and a cure for multiple sclerosis. To date, team My Support has raised more than $1,800.

“I had never done any fundraising or volunteer work before the Woodstock MS Walk,” Dubra said. “Becoming a member of the committee and walk team has been both fun and rewarding every year.”

Dubra and Brown will usher My Support into its third year at the 2007 Travelers MS Walk, this year presented by UnitedHealth Group, on Sunday, April 29. Eight communities across Connecticut will host the 2007 Travelers MS Walk the week prior on Sunday, April 22, including Cheshire, Clinton, Enfield, Manchester, New London, Simsbury, West Hartford and West Haven. Lunch will be provided compliments of Subway and Coca-Cola. The event takes place rain or shine. To learn more about the walk event, tune to WTNH News Channel 8, My TV 9, 97.7 WCTY, 96.5 TIC and 100.5 WRCH for the 2007 Travelers MS Walk, visit www.ctfightsMS.org or call (860) 714-WALK.

 

2/22/07

 

NOTE TO MEDIA:
For More Information
 
Contact Melissa A. Saranitzky
Communications Coordinator
Phone: 860.714.2300, ext. 239
E-mail: msaranitzky@ctfightsMS.org
           

 

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