By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
A woman who has slowly lost her mobility in the last two years is not giving up.
Instead she is fighting for others with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the same disease that she is fighting.
Wendy Sylvain was diagnosed with ALS in the July of 2012, a couple months after the Lake Orion native began tripping, uncharacteristic to the athletic woman.
ALS is often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and progressively degenerates nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord which affects muscle coordination and eventually muscle use.
First she needed a cane. Then a walker, and then a regular wheel chair. Now her uses a joystick to operate a motorized wheelchair, and even has a chin joystick to carry out her daily functions.
A group of Sylvain’s friends have rarely left her side since the diagnosis.
Wendy’s Warriors, as they have been coined, organized a charity event called Wendy’s Wonderful Warriors to benefit those living with ALS at Christi’s Bar and Grill.
The fundraiser is September 7 from 3 to 8 p.m. at 95 E. Clarkston Rd. Offering a $15 buffet donated by Christi’s and Hollywood Market, a live auction, silent auction, 50/50 raffles, bake sale and local Lake Orion acoustic musicians (who also are donating their time), the Warriors hope for a huge crowd. Sylvain has directed that all proceeds will be donated to ALS of Michigan and Project Freedom.
Project Freedom provides an in-home lifting harness that allows family members to help immobile patients with daily functions, such as lifting her out of a wheelchair and into a bed.
It is Sylvain’s goal not only to raise money to help find a cure to ALS’none are available at this time’but also to raise more awareness about the disease.
‘It seemed like she was going steady for a month or two then all of a sudden something major would change, she couldn’t get out of bed, she had to be lifted into her chair,? Wendy Machak said, one of the organizers of the event. ‘She is now more or less quadriplegic.?
Machak, one of the four women who visit Sylvain every day, said the next step many people with ALS choose is to be put on a ventilator and feeding tube.
People with ALS lose the function of their voluntary and involuntary muscles, she explained., but Sylvain is not opting to go that route.
‘She will just keep fighting. She loves her kids and doesn’t want to miss anything,? Machak said.
According to Machak, Sylvain was ‘truly fun loving,? went out dancing and singing with her beautiful voice, worked out at the gym, often took her kids tubing on the lake, before the disease showed itself.
She will not lose her dignity.
Others have picked up on her independent will as well.
‘Even in the situation she is in, she holds her head high, never complains, never whines,? Nick Christi said, owner of Christi’s Bar and Grill. Sylvain is a close friend of Christi, whom he can relate to, through the death of his father, also from ALS.
‘She’s the most wonderful person I’ve ever met, a beautiful person. Until you live with this and see it first hand, you don’t realize what an awful disease it is.?
She will be at the charity event in intervals with her family of three children, one in college, one in high school and one in middle school.
‘From the moment that she found out she has the ALS, yes it was devastating, but she is facing it head on, and unfortunately it’s just too strong for her,? Kim Diroff, another friend, said. ‘She has fought it with dignity and strength and she still has a smile on her face, even until this day you can still get her to smile.?
To learn more about ALS (add a good WEBSITE????)