Karen Frigstad first heard the word “ataxia” was when she was diagnosed with the disease in 1999. She had no idea what impact it would have on her future.
Now, more than a decade later, she knows. The slowly progressing degenerative disease has meant difficulty walking, impaired speech, and trouble keeping up with her three young children in general. There’s no known cure.
But Frigstad doesn’t let ataxia define her. She and her family have found hope in the researchers affiliated with the University of Minnesota’s Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center.
“They had a vision,” she says. “They were already making progress … We didn’t know what to do until we met these people.”
Learn more in this video, which debuted at Diamond Awards on January 26 and brought many in the sold-out crowd to tears.
