Denise Lopez-Majano
Chester County, Pa.

Alexander and Matthew

Having one child with a chronic illness is bad enough. But having two? Yikes!

Both of Denise Lopez-Majano’s sons were championship-level competitive swimmers. Both got a sinus infection at the exact same time. Both went on antibiotics at the exact time. Both did not get better at the exact same time.

Matthew, now 19, quickly progressed to pneumonia and then to bronchitis and never regained his health.

Alexander, now 20, recovered from the initial infection, but gradually became more and more ill over the next two years.

“When you think of a house with two teenagers, you think mayhem, boisterousness, lots going on, lots of back-and-forth and talk. You don’t think of a house that’s quiet,” she says. “Our house is quiet.”

In addition to their numerous other CFS symptoms, both boys are extremely sensitive to noise and light and smells.

Lopez-Majano and her family have supported the Association since 2007. They realized they needed to be as knowledgeable as possible about CFS in order to help raise awareness and be a part of the solution.

For her birthday this year, she asked her mother to make a gift to THECatalystFUND in honor of Matthew and Alexander. Her mother said, “It’s your birthday,” and suggested that the gift should honor Lopez-Majano. “I said, but they’re the patients,” she says.

Funding research is the key, Lopez-Majano believes, to solving CFS and getting people’s lives back. “The Association’s focus is to provide seed grants that are for significant research, for very interesting research, research that needs to be done to tease out the intricacies of this illness and focus on treatments and a cure,” she says. “The CDC and the NIH haven’t been providing enough. The Association’s grants provide a return on investment of $7 for every $1. That’s a tremendous return on investment and a tremendous validation of the research the Association is funding!”

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Your gift to THECatalystFUND will help speed discovery and transform the way that CFS research is conducted. Online gifts can be made through our secure donations page at: http://bit.ly/2011fund. Donations are tax-deductible to the full extent permitted by law.