A famous visitor to our blog -- Author Jackie Mitchard

Hi Y'all!

Something new I'll be doing in the final days of my ride is posting responses from various folks to some questions I've posed to them (ordinary folks and a celebrity or two). Here are the questions (I'm asking for answers to one or more):

1. Please tell me your MS story.

2. What has MS meant to your life and to those around you?

3. What do you most want people to know about MS and living with the disease?

4. What has helped you cope with MS?

This morning I received a reply from Jackie Mitchard (http://www.jackiemitchard.com/), bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean (named by USA Today as one of the ten most influential books of the past 25 years, and the first novel in Oprah's book club). Her e-mail to me was titled "Your effort is so gallant."

Here is Jackie's response:

My best friend from childhood has MS -- was diagnosed nine years ago. For her, the same symptoms lead to a slower conclusion; but she was the model for the character in my 2005 novel, 'The Breakdown Lane.' Because of her, I've also met thousands of people fighting MS, and not one who has given in, although some of their caregivers have. I've traveled all over the country -- from Nashville to Norfolk to Colorado -- although not by bike, raising funds for MS. As 'Friendship, Interrupted,' a story in October's Reader Digest points out (hear me talk about on RD.com), almost nothing has kept us apart and though it seems to that she's the needy one because she walks with a cane, it's really I who lean on her -- and have since we were 14 years old.

Is that cool or what?

Thanks, Jackie.

- sean

Sean Spence

MS Advocate

http://www.missouritomanhattan.com/

seanspence@earthlink.net