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| Inge Lanzenberger, right, leads discussion during the Multiple Myeloma Support Group in Perrysburg. (Photos: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune) |
Each person gathered in the meeting room of Way Public Library on a recent Tuesday afternoon found their way to the Multiple Myeloma Support Group from a different route. Gathered around the table were men and women, in a 30-year span of ages, but all shared one thing.
A sense of urgency.
"We have lost four members of our group to this disease and would greatly appreciate your help in educating others about multiple myeloma and raising awareness," Eunice Tschappat of Portage, herself a registered nurse, told the Sentinel-Tribune. "What we find is that Multiple Myeloma is a cancer that very few people have heard of."
All four deaths occurred from mid-September through December.
"I was tired all the time - great, great fatigue. My rheumatologist was the one who diagnosed me" in 2007, Tschappat recalls.