Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2011
This past August Jonna P. rode 167 miles in two days on her bike. This would be an impressive achievement for anyone, but it is almost miraculous for Jonna – she has multiple sclerosis. Needless to say, she and her husband Tom are overjoyed with her accomplishment.
Things haven’t always been so rosy for Jonna. For years after her symptoms first appeared in 1992, doctors misdiagnosed her MS. A neurologist finally diagnosed her MS in 1997, and when her symptoms surfaced two years later, she went into an emotional tailspin. She felt like her days of being an athlete had faded.
It wasn’t too long after this that Jonna first heard about Can Do MS's CAN DO Program, founded by former Olympic skier Jimmie Heuga, who also had MS. When she found out that the program was coming to Salt Lake City, she immediately enrolled and brought her mother as her support partner.
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