Letters raise NF awareness

May is National NF Awareness Month. I have been writing this letter to the editor for eight years. I hope many of you will recognize it and wonder why I keep telling you this. Since my letters have been published I have received phone calls from strangers and field questions from people who know people and who know my family. This is the purpose of my letters.

Our daughter, Mia, was diagnosed when she was 9 months old with a genetic disorder called neurofibromatosis. It is a disorder that does not discriminate in whom it affects. It is an unpredictable and incurable disease. NF is a lifelong disorder that encompasses a set of distinct genetic disorders that cause tumors to grow along nerves and can affect the development of bones and skin. NF can take on many forms and affects individuals in drastically different ways. Mia appears to be a perfectly healthy young girl. She has cafe au lait spots that some might take a second look at. We call them "angel kisses." She also has some peripheral neurofibromas that we watch.

She does not know what her future holds as it is too much for her young mind to understand, nor do we. We take one day at a time and pray each day that some day medical research will find a cure. If you would like to learn more about this disorder, you may visit ctf.org or call 1-800-323-7938.

MICHELLE SCHWETTMAN, Scott City