Sending help from a state away

Reese Barrett, a sixth grader at St. John’s School, is in remission from a nerve disease that causes pain. She’s trying to help another 12 year old with the same disease.

Last year I was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). It’s a rare nerve disease that most doctors have never heard of. I know how much pain it causes, so when I heard 13-year-old Emma Harrington from Carlsbad, New Mexico, has CRPS and needs treatment, but can’t afford it, I knew I had to do something. I heard about her situation when my mom connected with her mom through Facebook. 

My family started brainstorming ideas to raise money for Emma’s treatment. One of my suggestions was a bake sale. I started texting my friends to see if they would help. Before I knew it, we were baking and looking for a bake-sale location. Mrs. Kimberly Wexler, who also had CRPS and was treated by one of my doctors, asked Michaels if the store would host the sale. They were all in.

Later that week it was time for the sale! There were so many baked goods all my friends made. Right away people started showing up. I was overjoyed that people were donating and learning about CRPS. After five hours we closed the bake sale and brought all the extra baked goods to the Southside Place police and fire station. When we got home we counted the money we raised. The total was $1,391. Wow!

About a week later, we had another bake sale. This time we had two locations – Vivaldi Music Academy and Little Matt’s. We raised $1,753. Even more than last time! We raised $3,144 from all the sales combined!

I was so happy that I could contribute to Emma’s medical fund, and I am so lucky to have such great friends to help. In the future, if anyone needs medical funding, I would definitely do another bake sale. My goal, one day, is to donate enough money to CRPS research that no one will get it, and, if they do, there are enough doctors to help them.

When I got CRPS, it was horrible, but my mom told me that someday some good things would come out of it. This is one of them.

Learn about CRPS at rsds.org. You can follow Emma’s journey on her Facebook page. 

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