Ferocious Fighters was started by a 9 year old with a severe nerve disease. This disease is called CRPS. He was diagnosed and he didn't let that stop him. This disease is debilitating. You are in so much pain you can not function. The leading cause of death for people with CRPS is suicide. Patrick found this out and decided he wanted kids with this disease to know that they aren't alone.
CRPS is an "uncommon" disease. More than 1.3 million people in the United States suffers from this disease. What Patrick has done is amazing. He has brought together communities all across the country with his care packages that he send out. They have a "creation day" where volunteers come and help make blankets and write cards and put together care packages to send to kids all over the world. They started out just reaching out to kids in the U.S, but they have had submissions from people ing the UK, and other European countries.
Patrick and this community don't just send out care packages though. Him and his mom, Meg, went on a trip across the country to meet these kids that they have reached out to. They are working on spreading awareness to the communities these kids live in, and the world.
After a care package gets sent, Patrick stays in touch, and so do several of the volunteers. We give them a safe place and a community to be a part of, even if it's a phone call or a video chat on Facebook. We make sure they know that there are people out here who care about them, and other people out here that are going through the same thing.
Meg, Patricks mom, sells Jamberries to try to bring in money for the non-profit. They also take donations, and volunteers to help out. But, with CRPS not being that well known, it makes it difficult to get the donations that they need. Jamborees only do so much. There's only a select crowd that buys Jamberries.
This money would do so much for them. They would be able to connect and save so many children.
That's really the whole point of this. Let children, as young as 3, and even adults, know that they are not alone in this. The pain may be the highest ranking pain on the McGill pain scale, but there are people out there that understand and you CAN make it through.
You see, this disease, it is constant. The pain doesn't come and go. The pain stays. Some days it may be better than others, but it is always there. They learn how to function at a pain level that normal people would be incapacitated with.
I'm going to compare this to giving birth. So, people say giving birth is the worst pain, but that isn't true. This disease is the equivalent to going into labor, and never coming out of it, only worse. It has been explained with a comparison to a feather. To normal people, a feather is soft, and tickles some times. For a person with CRPS, the touch of a feather can feel like a blow torch to your skin, and it DOESN"T go away, EVER.
How would you function when it felt like you were breaking every single bone in your body, at once, all day every day, even when you're sleeping?
Review from #MyGivingStory