Residents came out in support of 7-year-old Jacob Maupin, who
suffers from eosinophilic esophagitis, during the Jacob’s Walk for
CURED. The walk was a huge success raising more than $14,000 for
CURED and medical research.
Residents came out in support of 7-year-old Jacob Maupin, who suffers from eosinophilic esophagitis, during the Jacob’s Walk for CURED. The walk was a huge success raising more than $14,000 for CURED and medical research.
Ask Jacob what Eosinophilic esophagitis is and he’ll tell you, “my body thinks food is a parasite and so I can’t eat.” But what it means to his family, and many families like his, is pain and uncertainty.
Eosinophilic esophagitis is the latest in a trend of new diseases with its aim at children. There has been a ten-fold increase in the disease since it’s recognition in 1993.
But for Jacob, it just means there is no doctor who understands his pain. If there is a problem with his tube feedings, local hospitals are unsure how to proceed, so there are long waits for consultations.
If you ask Jacob what he wants most, it is a cure. He has a list of foods he wants to try. You see, he can’t eat any food. Food causes him intense pain. So his feeding tube nourishes him – at school, at home, in bed. What does Jacob want to eat more than anything else? Rice. Yes, rice. Then dairy and cactus.
Saturday his family held their first walk to benefit CURED at the Coyote Creek Trail in Morgan Hill. CURED is a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to those suffering from eosinophilic enteropathy, which includes eosinophlic esophagitis, eosinophilic gastroenteritis, eosinophilic colitis and other eosinophilic disorders. It is the hope of CURED to raise substantial funding to aid in research and public awareness for this complex disease.
Details: www.curedfoundation.org.
