The sparse turnout for yesterday’s Multiple Sclerosis Walk 2001 in Lihu’e didn’t bother participants Kathy Niemi, Monty Montgomery or Brian Rapozo. As either victims of the disease or had friends who had it, they said they wanted to rally around
The sparse turnout for yesterday’s Multiple Sclerosis Walk 2001 in Lihu’e didn’t bother participants Kathy Niemi, Monty Montgomery or Brian Rapozo.
As either victims of the disease or had friends who had it, they said they wanted to rally around fund-raising efforts to continue the war against the affliction and raise more public awareness about it.
The disease attacks the central nervous system, and symptoms could be as mild as numbness or as severe as paralysis or loss of vision. Most people with the disorder are diagnosed between 20 and 40 years old.
“I support this because I want to see a cure,” said Montgomery, an ‘Ele’ele resident who was diagnosed with the condition in 1981 and has lost use of his legs, and now gets around by a motorized wheelchair. “I am 54 years old, and I am pushing for 110.”
The turnout – 125 people – was expected to be small because the event is not as well known as other more established fund-raising walks held on Kaua’i, said Mel Rapozo, who joined his wife in planning the event for the Hawai’i division of the National MS Society. “They are bigger, but we did OK,” Rapozo said.
The walk, sponsored by several Kaua’i businesses – including Grove Farm Co., the Hyatt Regency and Menehune Water company – took participants along a three-mile route from the Kukui Grove Shopping Center Pavilion to the Pua Ko residential subdivision and back to the pavilion.
The event had special meaning for Mel Rapozo’s family.
His 31-year-old brother, Brian, was diagnosed with the disease in 1999 after 10 years of misdiagnoses and is now undergoing treatment, said their mother, Jessie Sam-Fong.
Brian Rapozo complained of numbness in his finger and feet more than 10 years ago and walked with difficulty, Sam-Fong said. When he went to doctors for help, they told him “it was viral thing,” she said.
Her son’s condition deteriorated to the point that Brian, at the recommendation of a neurologist, checked into the St. Francis Hospital on O’ahu in 1999.
Through Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner (MRI) technology, her son was diagnosed with the condition, Sam-Fong said.
“We all cried, because we knew what was bothering him now,” she said. “Now he can cope.”
Today, her son is receiving beta serum injections to slow the progress of the disorder and is leading as normal a life as possible.
Because of a concern the disorder might be hereditary, Sam-Fong had Mel Rapozo, another son, a daughter and 14 grandchildren tested for the disease. The tests came out negative, she said.
Montgomery said the condition has left him with a life that is less than full.
Before he was diagnosed with it, he said he fished, swam and dived.
“I was a workaholic,” said Montgomery, who worked a substance abuse counselor.
Montgomery said he lives for the day when a cure will be found.
“Every disease has a cure. Look at polio,” he said. “Someday it will come. Everybody is waiting for it.”
Kauaian Kathy Niemi said she supported the event because it is “special” and connects her with a friend who has the condition.
The event also drew support from Kaua’i County councilmembers Randal Valenciano – who ran the course – and Gary Hooser, who walked it.
The walk generated $3,673 in pledges, with the largest individual contribution – $300 – from Steve Lauryn. The top fund-raising team was the Lihu’e troop of the Boy Scouts with $200.
Lisa Barnett, a fund-raiser coordinator with the O’ahu-based Hawai’i division of the National MS Society, said she hoped to reach the target goal of $35,000 through three fund-raisers held on Kaua’i, Maui and O’ahu this year.
The money, which will stay in Hawai’i, would be used for education, advocacy, research and local programs and will be used to help offset medical cost for those with the disorder through free medical treatment and free use of equipment, Barnett said.
In addition, the money would be used to bring medical experts from Honolulu to Kaua’i to talk about the management of symptoms, she said. The funds would benefit 33 Kauaians with the disease and more than 600 residents.
Nationwide, 350,000 people have the affliction.
Multiple Schlerosis, a disease of temperate rather than tropical climates, is diagnosed among adults between 29-33 years, but it can afflict people as young as ten and as old as 60, researchers say.
Women are more likely to develop the disease than men, occurring 50% more frequently in former than in the later.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
