They share an affliction and gather once a month to
”
meet a new friend,
”
according to Della Martinez, founder of the Lupus Support
Group.
They share an affliction and gather once a month to “meet a new friend,” according to Della Martinez, founder of the Lupus Support Group.
Martinez started the group with Pauline Mifsud in 1975 and ran the meetings out of her house, eventually moving to Hazel Hawkins Hospital for the sake of convenience. Martinez said the group took a break for the last year and a half because demand dropped.
But they’re back, and they’re meeting on the second Monday of each month in the hospital’s board room from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease causing the immune system to attack the body’s insides, including such organs as the heart, kidneys, lungs, brain, blood and skin, according to the Lupus Foundation of America.
Nationwide, 1.4 million citizens – 90 percent of them women – have the disease.
“A lot of people in San Benito County have lupus,” Martinez said, “for whatever reason.
“We never got really serious as far as being a chapter or anything like that, though,” she said.
Now they’re reinvigorated to spread awareness because of Hollister’s higher-than-normal incidence of the disease.
Martinez said the group is always open for suggestions from new members. And “once in a great while” they even have a guest speaker.
“It’s very important to let other people know we have a big problem here,” Misfud said. “A lot of people in Hollister who were born and raised here have it.”
She estimated that 50 people in Hollister have lupus – though the highest number of people at a meeting was five. Martinez and Misfud want to change that.
Misfud said most people come, start to feel better and don’t return.
“The problem is, you have ups and downs,” she said. “It’s a good idea to come to the meeting even if you’re feeling good. You’ll help other people gain optimism that they’ll feel better.”
Lupus, a chronic illness, never goes away completely. Doctors diagnosed Misfud in 1977. She felt better for years before experiencing a remission in 1996.
“We all look healthy,” Misfud said. “Internally, we feel like hell.”
Martinez agreed that lupus sufferers don’t lead normal lives.
“It changes your whole life,” Martinez said. “It controls your whole life… it’s very hard on some people.”
Misfud urges anyone, either suffering from the disease or related to someone who has it, to attend the group. In the past, she said, men have shied away because mostly women attend the meetings.
“They come and then don’t come back,” she said.
This is not a “women’s group,” Misfud said.
It’s just a group of people seeking comfort.
For more information about the group, contact Martinez at 637-3022 or Misfud at 637-7966.
