Team "The Irritables" Says It All!

The name says it all; it expresses so often how our body feels! In the mornings we awake with this disease that has no cure and often times we feel helpless and even hopeless. Many of us feel alone in our suffering-our family and friends can’t really relate and sometimes they simply don’t understand the extent of our pain. I personally have battled Crohn’s since 2003 and the past 7 years have been full of difficult challenges (tests, drugs, surgeries, sickness and the expense of toilet paper). However, this time has also been filled with many wonderful moments (a new job/career, family closeness, courage, faith, and getting married). Crohn’s has changed my life in a monumental way, but it hasn’t and it will not keep me from living out all of my hopes and dreams!

At the first of April when I became aware of the “Take Steps Walk,” I knew immediately I wanted to participate. My husband was the first to tell me about this great opportunity to raise money for research and more importantly get the word out about Crohn’s and Colitis. We began our search for the perfect name for our team. We wanted it to be creative but also clean (this is kind of hard when dealing with a digestive disease). Due to our lack of creativity, we enlisted the help of our friends and family. Our first contact was my very smart and creative Uncle Mark; within a few hours he had a list of 5-6 names. “The Irritables” jumped out at us immediately.

Now we had a team name, what do we do next? I began to work on our team’s website and inviting as many friends and family members to partner with me. I decided to set my personal goal at $500, but soon realized I needed to raise that goal. Asking for donations from family or friends just doesn’t come easy to me. However, due to many generous people I have already raised approximately $1500 and our team has raised around $1630. Most of our donations have come from our loving family and close friends. As we move closer to the date of the walk we begin to think of new ways of raising funds for research. It is our hope that as we begin to ask new people to give we will be encouraged by their response and support.

My primary goal for participating in the walk is to join with others who can relate to the many challenges we face on a daily basis. I am excited for the day of the walk to come and I hope every day for a cure!