850 – High Profilers
Lyme disease is obviously a non-discriminating epidemic. Here is a sample of the high profile individuals who have contracted Lyme and are using their celebrity to get the word out to educate the public.
Candice Accola: In a PSA she filmed last year, Candice says, “One of my best friends has Lyme Disease. I’ve seen how she went from having the world at her feet to barely being able to stand on her own
Delle Donne: ambassador for Lyme research
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/wnba/2014/11/05/wnbas-delle-donne-ambassador-for-lyme-research/18545077/
Yolanda Foster: one of the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” brought herself to tears Saturday night during a moving and powerful speech at Lyme Research Alliance’s (LRA) “Time for Lyme” Gala, as she eloquently recounted how Lyme disease led her to “some of the darkest days of my life.”
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10613497.htm
Daryl Hall: Daryl Hall of the rock duo Hall & Oates 1991- at his Bray House property in Kittery Point. Hall has lived with Lyme disease for more than three years.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/NEWS/80612006
Debbie Gibson: Debbie Gibson Details Her Struggle With Lyme Disease
Ally Hilfiger: While growing up, the daughter of fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger went to several doctors, who diagnosed her with everything from arthritis to growing pains. Though Hilfiger was bitten by a tick at age 7, the insect tested negative for Lyme disease, as did later tests doctors performed on her. Some test results were “borderline positive,” she said.
Avril Lavigne : Singer Avril Lavigne opens up about the devastating disease that kept her bedridden for months – and how she’s fighting to recover.
Sen. Schumer: Schumer said in an interview he thinks he contracted it from a tick that attached itself to his left leg while he was conducting a series of news conferences on dangerous dams in the Hudson Valley earlier this month.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102×2857717
Thalia: The Mexican-born entertainer who goes by the single name of “Thalia,” is one of the most famous Spanish-language singers in the world. She’s sold more than 40 million records, has starred in “telenovellas” (soap operas) shown around the world, had a lavish storybook wedding to prominent music executive Tommy Mottola, has sung at the White House and danced with President Obama.
http://www.lymedisease.org/news/touchedbylyme/thalia.html
Tom Seaver: Chicago Sun-Times | November 2 – Three-time Cy Young Award winner Tom Seaver is being treated at Greenwich (Conn.) Hospital for Lyme disease, but the condition is not considered serious, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-4080612.html
Amy Tan: Bethesda, MD January 9, 2004— It takes courage, talent and compassion to do what bestselling fiction writer Amy Tan has just done for Lyme disease patients and professionals around the globe. Tan has just devoted months of her life and an entire chapter of her latest book to the subject of Lyme disease after suffering from the disease herself.
http://www.igenex.com/release_tan.htm
Alice Walker: “Well, I came down with Lyme disease in the middle of all of this, and I experienced it actually as a spiritual transformation, even though I didn’t know that was going to be the result. It was very frightening.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2006/2/13/i_am_a_renegade_an_outlaw
Rebecca Wells: “I have advanced neurological Lyme disease. It affects the way I think, move, write, read, eat—every aspect of my life.
During the same time in 1998-1999 that my novels, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Altars Everywhere introduced the Ya-Yas to millions of readers, I was becoming very sick and did not know it.
At first I thought I just had a recurring case of bronchitis. I didn’t foresee the difficult journey that lay ahead of me. Things went from one weird symptom to the next, then a whole cocktails of symptoms kept developing. I stopped saying, “Things can’t get any worse than this.” Because they did, again and again.”
Lyme Handbook 