Wisconsin: Fox Valley Lymeade

Within these groups of individuals across the United States and other countries, there are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and so forth. As Dr. Jemsek states, “sooner or later” your family will be affected by this growing disease and you, too, will be trying to make a difference.

“In the Lymelight” ~ Fox Valley Lymeade

Luke is a son, father, husband, advocate who is devoted in making a difference by spreading awareness and rallying for legislation to help those that struggle with Lyme Disease and the other associated diseases. He has been advocating for the last two years. The drive behind his dedication is his wife and his family. He has been personally touched by this disease through his in-laws and then later his wife. As a father, his hope is that changes can be made so that children do not have to suffer like so many others that have fallen victims to this disease.

After his mother-in-law’s denial of coverage by the insurance company, Luke became an advocate for the cause. With his education in public relations and advertising he would use his “knowledge and experience to fight for her and to spread awareness. We started by simply writing letters, lots of letters, to our state’s elected officials to ask them to support legislation that would allow her to get coverage for her Lyme disease. We also wrote to and fought with her insurance company who continued to deny coverage for anything that they could relate back to her Lyme diagnosis.” He became so angry and couldn’t believe that “in America people that are truly sick can just be pushed around because they don’t have a loud enough voice to be heard.”

Hence, that is how his Facebook page, Fox Valley Lymeade, was created; it was “a simple way to spread awareness about Lyme disease to our family and friends. Many of these people didn’t understand what is was or why Julie was always ‘sick’ but didn’t show a lot of external symptoms. The Facebook page led to a lot of people contacting me wanting to know if we were going to be an active group and what they could do to help. That lead to Julie’s family pooling money together and we bought 1,000 lime green bracelets that we had printed with the slogan ‘Lyme Aware’.” With the proceeds from these bracelets, a fund was created for “community outreach programs.”

Luke’s and the group that grew from his concern began with their first big event by “showing the film Under Our Skin at a local high school for a crowd of about 50 people.” “It wasn’t as big a turn out as I hoped for but it was an inspiring start. We had a local Lyme literate doctor answer questions following the movie.”

At that time, Luke had no idea that his family was going to be affected even more so. “It was about a week after the movie that my wife was then diagnosed with Lyme. We weren’t sure what to think since we were learning more about Lyme and knew the horror stories. But I am happy to say that both my wife and my mother-in-law are both on great treatment plans and doing well.”

“I am active in the Lyme community because I feel it is vitally important to give voices to those folks who don’t have the energy or the resources to speak out on their own. I want to advocate for anyone who is sick but my focus with Fox Valley Lymeade is primarily Lyme disease awareness and legislation.”

It is people like Luke, his wife, and others that share the same concern that are driven to spread awareness, inform others, and march on in striving to make a difference. Luke is proud to say that his Fox Valley Lymeade Facebook page “is going great as well. We have a lot of new members that are ready to help anyway they can. Also, we have begun to make a lot great connections with Lyme activists and support groups around the state. We plan to make 2011 a great year for spreading awareness about this awful disease. Our group’s slogan is ‘Are You Lyme Aware?’”

To find out more about Luke’s Support Group, you may go to his Facebook page, Fox Valley Lymeade, at www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=369254283399&v=wall.

Lyme-Aware is an independent organization and has no affiliation with this organization or individual.

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