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Disease Stirs Mom To Act

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 13, 2007

Updated: 10/11/2007 10:11 pm

OLDSMAR - Multiple sclerosis tried to slow down Jackie Durning.

She found herself exhausted, tired 'to the bone,' she said, worse than the third trimester of her pregnancy. She would nap and wake up tired. She had to cut back her hours as an elementary schoolteacher at Bay Crest. She gave up the annual weekend scrapbooking parties she had coordinated for 11 years.

But Durning found that, despite her tiredness, she missed the planning and details of organizing the overnight scrapbook 'crops.' And she could apply her lifelong hobby to a cause.

'It was just magic,' said her husband, John.

She hosted the first 'MS Crop for Hope,' a charity scrapbooking event, last year and held the second annual weekend crop last month. Between the scrapbooking and the 2008 MS Walk, Durning wants to raise $10,000 for the local chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Her efforts brought in $5,000 last year. This year she has collected more than $5,000 from the Crop for Hope and hopes to double that by the March walk.

'Until we have enough money to find out why I have it and you don't - we'll never have enough money,' Durning said.

About 70 scrapbookers signed up for the crop, held at the Residence Inn in Oldsmar. Their registration fee covered hotel stays and supplies. Durning got donations for gift baskets and prizes for a silent auction and drawing at the fundraiser. Baskets of sports tickets, gift certificates to restaurants, scrapbooking supplies and other prizes overflowed on tables in the hotel lobby and hall.

Durning found out in 2005 at age 37 that she had multiple sclerosis. She had recently given birth to her son, Joshua, and woke up one morning that March with vision in her right eye that was blurry and bisected with a black vertical line.

Doctors considered a sinus infection and, when it didn't clear up, lupus and autoimmune diseases before arriving at the multiple sclerosis conclusion in May. It came almost as a relief. Durning had lain awake at night worrying that she had a brain tumor and would not see Joshua grow up.

Though multiple sclerosis is progressive and debilitating, she has a future.

'I may not walk or dance at his wedding, but I'm going to be there,' she said.

Her vision has cleared, and Durning takes nine medications, which have kept her symptoms in check. Her biggest problem has been a lack of energy, although she continues to teach through a job-sharing arrangement that allowed her to reduce her hours. She also stays active to play with her son, join committees for the MS Society and, of course, scrapbook.

A teacher for 17 years, Durning thinks part of the reason she has multiple sclerosis is so she can educate others about the disease.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503 or cpastor@tampatrib.com.

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