As you well know, multiple chemical sensitivity is a diabolical illness. MCS sufferers can endure painful and debilitating symptoms that require them to isolate themselves from the modern world, including their friends and often their families and the chemicals and scented products they use on themselves and on their clothes and in their homes. Yet, because the medical establishment does not understand MCS and even feels threatened by it, MCS sufferers are often denied the sympathy and community support that is regularly extended to those afflicted with cancer and other chronic illnesses. "Kook", "hypochondriac," and "troublemaker" are words too many MCS sufferers have heard amid their pain and despair. To make matters worse, undoubtedly the neurological effects of MCS combined with the constant danger of unexpected exposures can make MCS suffers seem irascible and eccentric.
Your monthly column in Our Toxic Times, the newsletter directed to the MCS community, is a core feature of that publication, providing to people sick with MCS a dependable source of hope and spiritual comfort from someone who understands their plight as only a fellow MCS sufferer can. Through your Hand of Hope Counseling Ministry you offer personal support and advice to people desperately in need of a friend. This is not easy. The number of people who need help is large, and the strain they are under can make them demanding. Only someone who truly gives straight from the heart can sustain the patience and compassion which is what your clients need most. You do this day after day, while at the same time managing your own MCS. You are a beacon in a storm to people lost in a sea of pain and confusion. You are an inspiration-- to MCS suffers who want to transcend their illness, as well as to people in good health who a lways need models of courage and spiritual power. Thank you for your example and for what you have taught us.
Congratulations!
Elissa and Bruce Peterson, Founding Members