As submitted by The Arthritis Foundation:
A Toms River girl will lead this year's annual Jingle Bell Run in Monmouth County.
The Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis will bring children and adults with arthritis together on Saturday, December 14, 2013 to raise funds to fight and cure arthritis, the nation’s leading cause of disability. This annual holiday-themed event will be held at Bar-A, 703-5 16th Avenue, in Lake Como, New Jersey.
The event includes a 5K Run/Walk, and a fun and festive post-event pasta bash and awards ceremony.
“I’m only 8 years old but I have arthritis,” says Alyssa Cusack of Toms River, NJ, who is this year’s Jingle Bell Run/Walk Youth Honoree. “My team is called Alyssa’s Angels and we’re all trying to help raise money to find a cure,” she added.
Alyssa is an active third-grader and enjoys tap dancing, gymnastics and Girl Scouts.
“Alyssa was diagnosed at age six with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. We realized something was very wrong when she could no longer go up and down the stairs and was very lethargic,” said her mother, Donna Cusack. “Because Alyssa also has a clotting disorder, she cannot take the regular medications prescribed to help with this disease. So for now, cortisone injections to her knees are her only possible treatment—until we find a cure,” added Mrs. Cusack.
The entire Cusack family and team members have been busy raising money for this year’s race by selling jingle bells and homemade chocolate ribbons at local businesses, schools and churches.
Voted as one of the nation’s “Most Incredible Themed Races” in 2012, the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis is an important and fun way to make a difference in the fight to end arthritis. Contrary to popular belief, arthritis is not an “old person’s disease.
There are more than 100 different types of arthritis that affect people of all ages. In fact, two-thirds of people with arthritis are under the age of 65, including 300,000 children.
“Runners and walkers really get into the holiday spirit and wear everything from jingle bells and Santa hats to holiday costumes and reindeer antlers,” said Rebecca Mooney, Senior Director of Special Events for the New Jersey Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. “There is no better family event this holiday season—everyone will have a great time all while giving back to others suffering from a very serious and debilitating disease,” added Mooney.
The Arthritis Foundation "funds life-changing research that has restored mobility in patients for more than six decades; fights for health care policies that improve the lives of the millions who live with arthritis; and partners with families to provide empowering programs and information," the organization said in a statement.
To register for the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis visit www.lakecomojbr.kintera.org or call 856-673-1367. The Jingle Bell Run/Walk national sponsor is AbbVie and the regional sponsor is Janssen.
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