Sarah Mascorro is organizing the Autoimmune Disease Walk to be held in Turlock on Saturday, April 28th in an effort to raise awareness surrounding the disease her son has dealt with for years.
Autoimmunity is the major cause of serious chronic diseases. Approximately 50 million Americans, 20 percent of the population or one in five people, suffer from autoimmune diseases, according to American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA).
Autoimmunity is a result of a misdirected immune system that causes one’s own immune system to attack the self. There are over 100 known autoimmune diseases; and unlike the many forms of cancer which are recognized as being part of the general term "cancer," autoimmune diseases are recognized singularly rather than in the overall category of autoimmunity.
Sarah’s 16 year old son, Andrew, has 3 Autoimmune diseases; Hashimoto’s, Type 1 Diabetes, and Addison’s disease.
With all the many different types of Autoimmune Diseases, Sarah knows first-hand the importance of being aware of some of the symptoms. 14 years ago she felt her son had health issues due to what she deemed to be a fast heartbeat.
Just 7 months ago Andrew was diagnosed with Addison’s, a disease that attacks the adrenal gland.
Sarah says the emergency doctors missed the symptoms initially but was eventually diagnosed with the disease.
“They laughed in my face and said I was just overly worried or the ER doctor said that it was just anxiety, etc,” says Sarah. “It was 100% obvious what he had and the symptoms matched it to the T. Well, finally we got someone at his Children’s Hospital he goes to, to actually listen and test him and I was right.”
So from the Mascorro family experiences, Sarah decided to do a walk for awareness and to help raise money for AARDA to help find a cure and even a cause.
The Autoimmune Disease Walk in Turlock will be held on Saturday, April 28, 2012, at Donnelly Park from 9am – 7pm.
Walk once or as many times as you would like. Want a challenge? Sign up for “The Challenge,” donate $5 per lap and you will be given a stamp. At the end of the day, people with most stamps win. There will be a lot of great prizes given out the next day.
If a person can’t make it out to the walk, they can visit the Autoimmune Disease Walk website page below and make a donation. All donations will go to AARDA.
The Autoimmune Disease Walk in Turlock has also been added as a project people may sign up to volunteer for during Love Turlock, a community service project day, being held on the same Saturday. Read more about Love Turlock here at this link: Love Turlock: A Service Project for the Community
Anyone with questions or who would like to help be a sponsor may call Sarah Mascorro at (209) 404-6058.
