Help Salt Spring Farmer Fight Lyme Disease

Subject: Salt Spring farmer with Lyme disease needs support


Salt Spring farmer Sharon Shewchuk of Salt Of The Earth Farm needs our support to help her through the winter. Sharon suffers from late stage Lyme disease, a debilitating condition that can occur if a bite from a tick infected with Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria is not treated immediately. Once the parasite becomes established in a person it is very difficult to eradicate.

Sharon was in remission from the disease for several years when she established Salt Of The Earth Farm to supply eggs to Natureworks, Salt Spring’s health food store. She is well-regarded for her livestock skills and farm management abilities. Like many of the new generation of Salt Spring farmers, she does not own land and is in a rental situation with her mobile hen house.

An accident in early 2018 triggered a relapse of Lyme disease symptoms which she described in the local Driftwood newspaper that May as "a terrifying experience of smouldering fevers, swollen joints, trembling limbs, unearthly peripheral neuropathies, and nauseating pain. It's like being dismantled alive, part by part.”

Eighteen months later, Sharon is still struggling with even the most basic tasks.

 "It's totally hour by hour survival right now for me" she says.

Despite the pain and physical weakness, Sharon is determined to continue to care for her hens, and equally determined to regain her health. The good news for Lyme disease sufferers is that 2019 has seen the development of an experimental new treatment that appears to be a “game-changer”. The drug Disulfiram (DSF) has long been used to treat alcoholism and has recently been discovered to be effective against the Borrelia bacteria. Sharon is beginning a six-month treatment with DSF, and if all goes well she may be free of Lyme disease at the end of that time.

However, until then, she is still in a very weakened state, requiring supplemental supports along with the prescriptions. Her income is insufficient to cover her expenses and we estimate that she will require an additional $1,500 each month for the next six months, for a total of $9,000.

We launched our appeal for Sharon in January 2019 and raised over $7,000. Thanks to everyone’s generosity, and Sharon’s tenacity and great spirit, Sharon is still with us. But winter is coming and Sharon needs our help again.

If you are able to help, donations may be made here on this site.

Or you may contact any of us directly. We are a small group of friends who have been helping Sharon for the past year.

With gratitude,

Friends of Sharon Shewchuk