Tonia Kever Hirschbuhl needs your support!

Tonia was diagnosed with ALS the day before Thanksgiving last year. These past few months have been overwhelmingly challenging for our whole family, but especially for Tonia as she navigates her diagnosis.

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a brain disease that targets brain cells called motor neurons. Motor neurons send messages from the brain to muscles throughout the body. In ALS, as motor neurons die, a person progressively loses the ability to walk, speak, swallow, and breathe. ALS affects adults of all ages, and there is currently no cure. Symptom management and quality of life are the most important things for my sister to focus on as she navigates this devastating diagnosis. My sister Era and I have accompanied Tonia to Boston for her doctor's appointments. These appointments will increase in frequency as she begins a trial at Mass General this spring. Tonia has a lot of fight in her and has agreed to participate in a clinical trial with the hope of not only helping to slow her own disease progression but in an effort to help find a cure for this devastating disease.

Tonia, and her whole family, need your support in any way you give it. She has not been able to work since her diagnosis, and we all know that the cost of living anywhere, but especially on Nantucket, is near impossible, even under the best of circumstances. At the time of her diagnosis, Tonia was working full-time and helping to put her daughter Sarah through college at St. Lawerence University. Patients with ALS incur an average of $92,000 in direct costs and $51,000 in indirect costs related to the disease itself on an annual basis *. We have set up this Go Fund Me page for Tonia on her behalf, and 100% of the funds will go directly to her to help her pay for travel, medical, and everyday expenses.

Thank you for your support on behalf of Tonia and her kids, Michael, Wade, and Sarah, and our whole family.

We will be hosting a fundraiser on June 4th at The Gaslight on Nantucket from 2-5 PM, details forthcoming. If you can't support our efforts via Go Fund Me, please show up on June 4th!

source * (source American Life Fund)

It says that your donation with benefit Callie, but all funds go directly to Tonia.