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Published by Vanguard Press
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On the surface, Victoria Jackson is the American Dream
personified: from a troubled childhood and unfinished high school
education she overcame immeasurable odds to create a cosmetics
empire valued at more than half a billion dollars. Married to Bill
Guthy -- self- made principal of infomercial marketing giant
Guthy-Renker -- Victoria's most treasured role was mother to three
beautiful, beloved children, Evan, Ali, and Jackson. Suddenly, Victoria's dream life is broken as she begins to battle
a mother's greatest fear. In 2008, her daughter, Ali, began experiencing unusual symptoms
of blurred vision and an ache in her eye. Her test results led to
the diagnosis of a disease so rare, the chance that she had it was
only 2%. Neuromyeltis Optica (NMO) is a little understood,
incurable, and often fatal autoimmune disease that can cause
blindness, paralysis, and life-threatening seizures, and afflicts
as few as 20,000 people in the world. At the age of 14, Ali was
given a terrifying prognosis of between four to six years to live. Saving Each Other: A Mother-Daughter Love Story begins
just as Victoria and Bill learn of Ali's disease, starting them on
a powerful journey to save Ali, their only daughter, including
bringing together a team of more than fifty of the world's leading
experts in autoimmune and NMO-related diseases to create the
Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation. Told in alternating viewpoints, Victoria and Ali narrate their
very different journeys of coming to terms with the lack of
control that neither mother nor daughter have over NMO, and their
pioneering efforts and courage to take their fight to a global
level. Bringing their story to light with raw emotion, humor, warmth,
and refreshing candor, Saving Each Other is the
extraordinary journey of a mother and daughter who demonstrate how
the power of love can transcend our greatest fears, while at the
same time battling to find a cure for the incurable. pub date: 2012-10-16 | Hardcover | 9781593157333 |
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