DEAR EDITOR: My name is Nicholas, and I’m 8 years old. When I was 3, the doctors said that I had something wrong with my muscles. My mommy told me the name, but I didn’t know how to say it when I was little. Now that I am older, I can say “juvenile dermatomyositis,” but it’s easier to just call it JDMS. I take a lot of medicine every day so that I can get better. It’s a little hard for me to walk and my arms don’t straighten right now, so I have to get help with bathing and dressing and stuff like that, but my therapists help me to stay strong.

I don’t let the disease slow me down too much – I love baseball and fishing and playing with friends at school. My favorite time is MDA camp in the summer. For a whole week, I get to go fishing (I LOVE FISHING!) and swimming and do arts and crafts. I get to spend the nights away from home and I get my own buddy to have fun with all week!

I want to say thank you to all the people who take time out to help raise money for MDA. Without their help, I couldn’t go to summer camp. Also, MDA is helping to pay for my wheelchair, and that helps my mom and dad a lot. I like the doctors at MDA, too. Everyone is really nice to me, and I love them all.

Thank you for all that you do to help me and other kids like me!

Nicholas Forsythe
LaPlace

DEAR EDITOR:

Our family wants to take a moment to ask the people of southeast Louisiana to tune in to the Jerry Lewis Telethon to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association this Labor Day weekend.

As parents of a child with a neuromuscular disease, we know first hand the valuable assistance provided by MDA to people with more than 40 neuromuscular diseases. Support groups, financial help with medical equipment and the MDA clinic at Children’s Hospital and Louisiana State University Medical Center are just a few of the important services MDA offers. Most important of all is MDA’s ongoing search for cures and treatments through its aggressive research program, which makes exciting progress every day.

The telethon will be broadcast Sept. 1-2, beginning at 9 a.m. on WNOL-38, or can be seen on the web at www.mdausa.org.

Thank you in advance for watching and supporting this cause. It means the world to people right here in southeast Louisiana.

Yancey and Lisa Forsythe
LaPlace