13-year-old Melissa Shang is an activist, an advocate and an author. She’s spoken at the United Nations, given a TedX talk and just published her first book. She is a girl on a mission. And it all started with an American Girl doll named Isabelle. For Melissa, Isabelle was the last straw. Every year, American . . .
Noah Hometown: Cortland, NY Age: 17 Diagnosis: I was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) Favorite School Subjects/Activities: My favorite school subject is history. Favorite People: My favorite people are my parents and my sister Katie. I also love spending time with my grandpa and my cat, Smokey, who is 16 years old. Interests: I like to read and I also . . .
Navigating through college isn’t easy for anyone, but it can be especially tricky for people with disabilities. Here are some quick tips to help those of you heading off to college this fall — as well as anyone considering attending university one day. 1. Pick a school you want to attend, not one you are . . .
Halie, who attended MDA Summer Camp, shares the impact the experience has made on her, thanks in part to sponsors like Casey’s.
Some said living independently was too much to hope for. Joe Akmakjian said “Watch me!”
Latondra Chappell is like most teenagers. She drives, goes to prom and is attending college. However, at the age of 11, Latondra was diagnosed with congenital muscular dystrophy, which caused her muscles to break down and lose strength, putting her in a wheelchair. At her local MDA Care Center, Latondra’s doctor pushed her to live . . .
In an auditorium in Bearden, Arkansas, Doug Haynes was sitting in his wheelchair by the stage, dressed in his graduation robes. The high school senior had waited for this moment for four years. His physical therapist stood in front of him, pushing away the chair’s footrests and grasping the gait belt around Doug’s waist. Sensing . . .
Avery Friedmann was strung into a climbing harness, on top of a 30-foot hunk of rock in the middle of Estes Park, Colorado — and she was upside down. She was also laughing. “So, here I am, hooked up to this giant rock and I’m looking straight down at the ground,” she says of the . . .
Think back to when you were 16. It may have been a time of excitement, optimism, awkwardness, and questionable style choices. These feelings during adolescence are universal – and are also experienced by young adults with neuromuscular diseases. Like all teenagers, the youth served by MDA have incredible talents, aspirations and promise. They also . . .
A young man with Charcot-Marie-Tooth shares his experience from the CMT clinic in Iowa City.
