My Voice: Lisa Evans
Melbourne Weekly | April 19, 2011 | By Lisa Evan
Lisa Evans, 41, will embark on a two-week trek in France later this year in honour of her 12-year-old son Jack, who has a degenerative neuromuscular disease.
Jack was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy when he was eight months old and we were told not to expect him to live past two. He suffers from a genetic disease which, in short, affects the motor neurons in his spine and causes his muscles to waste away. As a result, Jack is unable to sit, crawl or walk. He cannot swallow, so he is fed through a tube and he’s also susceptible to recurrent chest infections. He relies on a ventilator to breathe at night and always has a suction machine with him to clear secretions. Jack spends his life in an electric wheelchair.
The condition occurs in one in 10,000 live births and is the greatest genetic killer of kids under the age of two.
I’m taking part in the seventh ChallengeMD! in Mt Blanc, France, to raise more than $250,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. There’s 17 Aussies participating in the 14-day trek, from June 24 to July 8, which circumnavigates Mt Blanc through France, Italy and Switzerland.
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