Dolores Ames Scleroderma Walk at RIT, April 12

Event aims to raise money and awareness for autoimmune disease

Dolores Ames lost her life to Scleroderma – an autoimmune disease affecting 300,000 Americans – in September 2002. Her niece, Ginny Orzel, wants to find a cure and educate people about the early-warning signs.

The Dolores Ames Scleroderma Walk at Rochester Institute of Technology, April 12, will raise money and awareness for the disease.

"I feel a strong desire to educate the public about this horrific disease and raise money to find a cure," Orzel says. "It’s important to know about the early warning signs so the disease can be discovered in its early stages of development."

Supported by the Scleroderma Research Foundation, all of the proceeds from the walk will go towards research for a cure at Johns Hopkins University. The foundation funds science at the most basic level to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the disease process.

Scleroderma is a degenerative autoimmune disease that affects as many or more people than Multiple Sclerosis or Muscular Dystrophy. Of these, 80 percent are women. 

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