StemCell Therapy

by LINDSAY IADELUCA, NBC 10 NEWS

When you think of arthritis you might not think children of children. But one father in particular has spent over a decade dedicating his time to raising money for just that, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or JRA, after his daughter Kelsey was diagnosed at 3 years old.

"First thought is arthritis is for senior citizens. I never realized there is over 300,000 children that have it. I never knew that. So, it was kind of eye-opening, Edd Pedro, organizer for the Fight for a Cure Wiffle Ball Tournament told NBC 10 News.

"I never thought it would become this big. It was just a couple friends and we put a few teams together to raise some money, Pedro said.

Garrett Gibson is 22 years old now. He was diagnosed with JRA at 3 years old.

"The biggest thing I remember is going into the first grade I had to wear wrist casts because of my growing and stuff, Gibson said.

"Especially in the winter. Sports for me were just very, very, hard. I'd have to wear double, triple gloves. Catching a ball or anything like that, picking things up off the ground, were very hard for me. Even to this day, in the winter, I have to have someone do it for me because my hands clamp up, Gibson continued.

As a child, Garrett remembers doing special exercises like picking up coins and beads to improve the dexterity in this fingers. But he says things have improved.

"It definitely gets better. I used to take a bunch of medicines, six pills a day and then I got to wind down off it and I don't even take any medicine at all anymore, Garrett said.

The tournament has gone 14 years. They have raised $327,000 for the arthritis foundation.

Read more here:
Local group raises money for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in Pawtucket - Turn to 10

This entry was posted on August 14, 2017 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Arthritis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |