Miss Hawai’i contestant with disease will help fund-raising The tingling sensation that Liane Mark felt after being crowned Miss Waikiki in February wasn’t from excitement. Shortly after winning the title that gives her a chance to compete for Miss Hawai’i,
Miss Hawai’i contestant with disease will help fund-raising
The tingling sensation that Liane Mark felt after being crowned Miss Waikiki in February wasn’t from excitement.
Shortly after winning the title that gives her a chance to compete for Miss Hawai’i, she learned from doctors that she has multiple sclerosis. She doesn’t know how serious it is or will become. She just knows life is different now.
“I definitely have a mission. God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle,” said Mark, who will be a featured guest this Friday at a benefit dinner in Po’ipu that will serve as a prelude to MS Walk 2001 on Kaua’i, an annual fund-raiser for MS programs.
Mark has become a spokeswoman and advocate for MS awareness and patients. It’s a role she never anticipated before the tingling in her feet, legs and hands was diagnosed as the disease that afflicts 350,000 people in the United States, one of the countries where the illness is most prevalent.
Mark, 23, a Yale University graduate, knew virtually nothing about MS until she contracted it. She now knows there are four types of the disease: Benign (the mildest form), relapsing-remitting, relapsing-remitting with secondary progression, and primary-progressive (the most severe, causing a steady decline in health toward disability).
“Of course I’m scared,” even though doctors aren’t sure which level she’s at, said Mark. “But I won’t let myself be ruled by fear.”
Other than being “a little weaker,” she has maintained an active life that includes working as a lifeguard and swimming instructor at a YMCA in Honolulu. She’s also preparing for the Miss Hawai’i pageant in June and making personal appearances for MS programs, including the dinner Friday at Po’ipu Bay Grill and Bar.
Ticket proceeds from the dinner and money raised in MS Walk 2001 on Saturday at Kukui Grove Pavilion will support education, advocacy and research, as well as local programs, said Mel Rapozo, coordinator of the walk.
Rapozo, whose younger brother, Brian, was diagnosed with MS two years ago, said the programs “enhance the quality of life for people with MS and their families.”
Editor Pat Jenkins can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) and mailto:pjenkins@pulitzer.net
