The stars all aligned last month, and I got my ducks all in a row and had lunch with Lisa Keefe in quaint, old-town Loveland, Colo. Of course when you eat lunch with an editor of Meatingplace, the servings include burgers and bangers.

I told Lisa I missed the give and take with readers from Meatingplace.com; well, most of them anyway. It was a good 10 years of blogging.

I told her I would also miss the opportunity, also, to solicit donations for Brooke’s Believers, my daughter Brooke’s and my Walk MS team. Over the years readers have often stepped up and sent a donation. She said, “Write a guest blog and I will post it.”

So here goes:

On March 9, 2015, Monro Sefcik ate a sandwich from a Subway in Charlotte, N.C.

On March 12 Monro was dead as a result of a Clostridium perfringens foodborne illness.

Monro had diabetes and doctors thought that illness impeded his body’s ability to fight off the infection.

We are in the third decade of the 21^st century; people with diabetes, autoimmune diseases or on chemotherapy should not have to worry about dying simply from eating a sandwich.

Maybe they should not travel to developing countries and drink the water, but this was Charlotte, N.C., for crying out loud.

Autoimmune diseases attack the body’s own cells and can decrease the body’s ability to mount a quick defense and destroy viruses and bacteria.

Autoimmune diseases are often treated with medications that decrease the self-inflicted damage to nerves, brain, skin, bones and/or pancreas, but they also further lower the immune system’s ability to fight off germs.

Autoimmune diseases include Multiple Sclerosis, Type I Diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, to name a few.

My daughter was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis 10 years ago, on her 35^th birthday.

She has been on four different medications intended to keep relapses at bay.

The second one she was on dropped her white blood cell count to dangerously low levels. If she had contracted a foodborne illness at that critical time I have no doubt it would have killed her.

The medication she is now on requires a five-hour infusion by IV every six months and regular blood testing to make certain she does not lower her immune system’s ability to defend to a critically low level.

As a result of efforts like Walk MS that fund research, the FDA has approved 10 new medications for MS in the last 10 years. Your support could help find stronger, safer disease modifiers and maybe, eventually, a cure.

You may not be able to buy guaranteed safe raw oysters or romaine lettuce, but you just might save a life with a donation supporting research made out to the National MS Society and mailed to me at:

6844 Clovis Court, Timnath, CO 80547

In 10 Walks, Brooke’s Believers has raised $222,000. Our goal is to get to a grand total of a very cool quarter million dollars this year, but we have to raise our best total yet and need some extra help.

The 1 million Americans living with MS thank you for reading this blog and at least considering making a contribution.

I want to thank all of you who have donated in the past, and hope to hear from you and a few more of your fellow readers this year.

You, personally, can help make eating food less of a risk

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