A Saturday stroll on the Lakewalk is a commonplace experience for many Duluthians, but for 24-year-old Nichole Reed, every step is a struggle and an accomplishment.
This will be the case for many of the participants in the Arthritis Walk, taking place Saturday, May 21, at Canal Park. The walk is for those with arthritis and the people who support them.
Deborah Moran, director of development for the Arthritis Foundation -- North Central Division, calls arthritis the hidden disease.
"It is not as sexy as cancer," joked Moran, who is a cancer survivor herself. "But it affects all people at any time in their life."
For Reed, she began her battle when she was only 8 years old.
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"Before I found out that I had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA), I was just a normal kid who dreamed of running Grandma's Marathon," Reed said.
But with the chronic joint pain, fevers and rashes, Reed found it difficult to even be a normal kid on the playground.
"I wanted to do everything everybody else did, like I always had," she said. But Reed, who soon learned that JRA would not allow that, said it took her a while to accept it.
JRA is the most common chronic illness in children, according to the Arthritis Foundation. It is more prevalent in children than multiple sclerosis, hemophilia and sickle-cell anemia combined.
"This is not just your grandparents' disease," Moran said. Arthritis is the major cause of work disability in the United States and there is no cure, only treatments. "It can be anything from a nuisance to life threatening," Moran said.
One in three people have one of arthritis' 100 forms. Moran said the best protection is early detection.
"Taking a pain reliever and ignoring it will not make it go away. Get a diagnosis," she said.
Now that Reed has grown, she has a much better handle on how the disease affects her life and how she treats the pain. She said improved medications, combined with support and education, have helped her get her JRA under control.
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Reed recently earned a degree in early childhood education from the University of Minnesota Duluth. She also has her eye on a marathon again; this time it's Duluth's in-line skating marathon.
Reed will be at the Arthritis Walk, as this year's local honoree, along with many others -- the foundation hopes the turnout will be near 1,000 people.
Registration starts at 8 a.m. at Grandma's Sports Garden on Saturday, May 21, and the walk will begin at 9 a.m. with a three mile or one mile option. Money raised will go to education programs through the Arthritis Foundation, as well as research at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota.
To register or for more information, contact the Arthritis Foundation at 727-4730 or visit http://www.arthritiswalkduluth .
kintera.org.
