Kristin Stadum is a woman using her altruistic nature to help revolutionize a disease most commonly diagnosed to women in their late thirties, Multiple Sclerosis (MS). MS was defined as an incurable, progressive and debilitating disease. “But,” Stadum says, “in the past 6 years, MS has changed from ultimately debilitating to most likely debilitating. That change is huge. There was a definitive ‘this will be debilitating but now it’s not.”
This is life-changing news to someone like Stadum who traveled to all 7 continents before being diagnosed with MS at the age of 37. She traveled to 60-some countries before she received an answer to the question about symptoms she had shown since she was 12. Stadum is glad she was not diagnosed at that age because the medication available at that time (and her fear) would have kept her from living the life that she has. Stadum says, “I would not have done all the traveling. The medicine available when I was 12 were interferons. I would have probably never left Ohio.”
In the years since diagnosis, Stadum has channeled the passion she put into her travels into helping be part of revolution in MS treatment.
Stadum came from a charitable family. She says, “I grew up in an altruistic family. My mom was a church secretary. We served others before we ate holiday meals ourselves.” This influence led Stadum into using her free time volunteering with various non-profits. Notably, in 2018, Stadum co-founded 2,000 Libros whose mission is to provide books to immigrant children who separated from their families and placed in centers across the U.S.
This year Stadum is using her philanthropic spirit that created 2,000 Libros to address MS by participating in the Multiple Sclerosis Challenge Walk in Cape Cod in early September of this year.
“My husband and I will be walking 50 miles through Cape Cod the weekend after Labor Day,” she says. Her goal is to raise 1,500 dollars from her sponsors as well as training for the event. “This month, I have been spending more this month walking than packing books.”
Stadum hopes events like MS Challenge Walk will raise funds to continue to advance treatment options for Multiple Sclerosis. She would love to see a drug developed to regrow myelin, the sheath of fatty tissue that protects nerve cells. In Multiple Sclerosis, the body’s immune system attacks that covering, which means that nerves won't be able to send and receive messages as they should.
“There is no medicine that regrows myelin. So, that’s what I would see in the future, a drug that regrows myelin. It doesn’t grow back,” Stadum says. She has hope this could happen considering the immense strides made in MS since she was first diagnosed. She says being a part of the cure is something that keeps her going. She says, “I would tell anyone that life is really short no matter what. I need to live my life now. There is no sense of waiting.” Spoken like a true revolutionary, thank you Kristin Stadum.
For more information on Kristin Stadum and the charities she is involved in, please check out the
2,000 Libros website: https://www.facebook.com/2000Libros/ and to help her in her fight against MS, please check out and donate to the MS Challenge Walk 2019 at: https://www.facebook.com/donate/2176281592483229/
To hear Kristin’s full podcast interview, please check out rgurleyrevolution.com where women may live in different houses but we are sisters in the end…