A LETTER FROM MADISON. A 10-year-old's donation provides inspiration
While the ACR REF’s Within Our Reach: Finding a Cure for Rheumatoid Arthritis campaign recently topped $30 million in funds raised, no other donation provided as much inspiration as the one that the REF received recently with a letter from a young donor.
The letter begins like one that any fourth grader might compose:
“My name is Madison,” she writes. “I love Pokémon and my favorite animal is a fox. My favorite food is chicken soup.”
She goes on to explain that her mother has had rheumatoid arthritis “for almost two years now and she has been fighting it.” Along with the letter, Madison sent a check.
“To get money, I did chores and a friend of my mom’s donated money too,” Madison writes. “I would love it if someone found a cure.”
Like those of us who viewed this letter when it came in to the REF, Madison’s mother, Sue, was touched when she saw it. “It made me cry,” she says.
“She’s witnessed big changes in mom,” Sue explains. “From a person who was very physically active to one who’s tired and sick and in pain. And that’s very difficult for kids to understand. She thinks about the future, and she just wants there to be something that makes it better.”
Sue recognizes the importance of the research that the REF supports, with the help of donations like Madison’s. “For something that’s had such a huge change in my life, it amazes me that there’s not more known about the causes and how to treat it, and that it can’t be stopped.”
For patients and families impacted by RA, like Madison and her mother, there is hope: the $24.4 million in research funded by the Within Our Reach campaign has already resulted in promising findings. Rheumatologists and health care professionals now have more information that will help them diagnose, treat, and understand the causes behind RA, and researchers have made progress that may ultimately lead to a cure.
Meanwhile, Madison will continue to help others like her whose lives have been changed by RA. She is currently working with her mother on a children’s book that will help explain RA to other kids.
