Thanks!

Why they hide it? I don't know.

Trout

Coming out about any chronic disease, especially a neurological and debilitating one, is a huge decision for the ordinary person. I for one am taking tentative steps telling people. The reactions I get are not always comforting. Or they are too comforting, if you know what I mean.

Take it a step further. To be a spokesperson requires a huge commitment. Say, you're a movie actress who gets roles but you have to compete to stay in the business. If you are chronically ill and announce it, there is a big insurance bond placed on you (meaning the studios have to pay that premium) and some studios may say, "Hey, let's go with so-and-so instead. S/he's more reliable."

Studios can't risk to lose even a day of shooting because of an actor's illness. With commercial films the studio loses at least $200,000 a day when shooting is put off. It's nonrecoverable loss.

That's why aging stars hide the fact that they have heart conditions or cancer or whatever. If they got sick, no one waits until they are well. They are replaced, and word gets around that they're a no-show.

Then there is the aspect that as a famous person you will be inundated with requests to appear at every local fundraiser for your disease. You will be beseiged with people with your same disease who ask that you give them money or help and you will feel frustrated and guilty that you can't help thousands of individuals.

Think of how our LLMDs are beseiged by desperate people. Everyone would like them to give a talk at their group. People get mad at them for NOT responding to all requests with equal cheeriness.

I've worked in the film industry before, no, not as an actor, but I have seen what happens.

Some do become spokespersons --paid spokespersons. Terri Garr is the spokesperson for MS and she gets paid a lot of money to do that. There's no money floating out there for Lyme spokespersons.

Anyway, that's why I think some celebrities don't divulge their illness, no matter what it is, unless, as in Christopher Reeve's case, they have no choice. Those with invisible illnesses want some privacy like anyone else. They want to keep working.

Thanks for the info!
Cayce

------------------
"We are, each of us, angels with only one wing. And we can only fly embracing each other."

It would help have a high profile celeb lead a crusade in perpetuity to fight for Lyme reaseach & treatment. Sharon Stone has trielessly fought for AIDS, MJ Fox fights for Parkinsons etc.

LYME DISEASE: A GUIDE TO PREVENTION
Meryl Streep Narrates New TV Special
That Examines Alarming Public Health Problem

A frightening health threat lurks in the backyards, parks, and forests of America. A threat as tiny as a freckle, but capable of causing a lifetime of debilitating pain and neurological damage. Lyme disease, spread through the bite of infected deer ticks, results in 15,000 to 16,000 reported cases per year with many more cases never reported. Symptoms include
fever, chills, headache, fatigue, and muscle and joint pain. Unheard of thirty years ago, Lyme disease today is one of the most alarming health threats facing our country.

LYME DISEASE: A GUIDE TO PREVENTION, a new 60-minute documentary
narrated by Academy Award-winning actress and mother Meryl Streep, reveals the ways in which the disease is spread, how to spot the symptoms, preventive strategies, and new methods in development designed to control the new public health problem.

LYME DISEASE: A GUIDE TO PREVENTION is being distributed to public television stations nationwide by American Public Television (check local listings).

Produced by Connecticut Public Television, the special chronicles the stories of individuals of all ages who have suffered from Lyme disease. Wolfie Blair, a young boy from Martha's Vineyard, recalls how he lost the ability to walk when Lyme disease unknowingly attacked his system. Lawyer, family man and avid golfer Frank Brown dismissed his tick bite when he didn't see a telltale bull's-eye rash, but lyme disease soon devastated his health, his family and his work. Sandra O'Neill was bitten by a deer tick while gardening and though she's been on antibiotics for two years and spent $100,000 in medical bills, her painful symptoms continue to return.

Lyme disease was first thrust upon the medical stage thirty years ago when a handful of children from Lyme, Connecticut were diagnosed with a mysterious form of arthritis. When she couldn't get any answers, Polly Murray, the mother of one of the children diagnosed, began investigating the health problem on her own by gathering information from neighbors with similar symptoms. Her research forced the medical and scientific community to examine the disease and its source.

LYME DISEASE: A GUIDE TO PREVENTION offers practical advice on how to spot the tiny ticks, how to remove them without spreading Lyme disease bacteria into a bite wound, and how to keep deer ticks out of your yard. The special also introduces new innovative ways scientists are working to reduce the deer tick population.

LYME DISEASE: A GUIDE TO PREVENTION was produced by Connecticut Public
Television and distributed nationwide by American Public Television (APT). Production support has been made possible by the Centers for Disease Control.

Narrator: Meryl Streep. Producer: Mary Ann Shanahan. Project Manager: Don
Russell. Executive Producer: Larry Rifkin.

-CPTV-

Publicity contact: Lee Newton, Connecticut Public Television,
860-278-5310, ext. 1285.

Hey, Lamp....would you please repost this article with its own title and thread? I'd like to bookmark it so people can go directly to it and not get lost in the first part of the thread. Hope that makes sense??

It's Mary McDonnell. She was nominated for an academy award for Dances with Wolves. Or maybe mre recently you saw her as Carter's mother in ER where she was nominated for an Emmy.

Amy Tan has spoken out a lot, but is not able to be a spokesperson because of the pressure that that would mean. SHe has started a fund for Lyme kids, LymeAid4Kids. It's on the LDA front page at www.lymediseaseassociation.org

I keep thinking that there must be a way to incorporate the help of drug companies but not sure how to go about it.

Perhaps we could learn from some of the MS groups on how to do this.

And I think we need a male bachelor.

Join The Fight With Iacocca for Juvenile Diabetes

Air Date: 08/17/2004

Former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca is mounting an online campaign to cure juvenile diabetes. Iacocca recently donated a million dollars to the three-year effort and hoped 10 of his richest friends would do the same. They didn't come through, so now he is hoping a million people will donate $10 each to get the needed research funds. Iacocca's wife died of diabetes 21 years ago, and he has been fighting for a cure ever since. Iacocca says, researchers at Mass General have cured juvenile diabetes in mice so now is the time to spend more money to make human trials possible. If you would like to make a donation, please click in Iacocca's Web site below.

For More Information:
www.joinleenow.org