Ladies and gentlemen of the Hepatitis C community, I plead with everyone about getting involved in the future of HEP C treatment and the education of both the doctors and general public. I just received a forwarded email from the folks that are fighting to get us more money to bring more services to our disease. The problem is the current HEP C advocates are a small group that is getting really tired of being pushed around by the AIDS community who want contorl over all the government money. After reading only a couple of emails (I just joined the HEP C advocate group last week) I am mad as heck. The Executive Director of AIDS Treatment Data Network stated at the end of his comment that the people fighting for our care is a bunch of moody drama queens. Boy did that make me want to scream.

The battle is that the AIDS community wants the care and research of HEP C all to go under their umbrella and the HEP C people want it seperated because like myself I do not have AIDS and therefore did not even qualify to get group support in my city. I am tired of being ignored and not noticed for whom I am. I am like most of you hard working tax paying americans with a disease most doctors cannot even spell let alone know about. We fight and struggle just to find people who understand the side effects of the disease alone. Heaven forbid we are duo diagnoised. We are depressed and taking medicine that has more side effects than the disease itself. That is why I have not done treatment yet, I am not convinced there is only one answer out there. IT IS TIME TO STEP OUT AND BE NOTICED-Our voices are the only thing that will make a difference. The world needs to know we exist and are willing to work together to help solve this dilema and we are not all homosexuals like the AIDS community wants everyone to believe we are. WE NEED OUR OWN PROGRAMS THAT SUPPORT OUR ISSUES NOT THEIRS. Until this past July I had a great job for over 21 years, paid super high preimums to have a great medical team and trying to manage my disease with herbals. I have stayed out of politics until now. I have no insurance, (thank God I had all my tests done before now), no way to get the expensive treatment I so desperatly need, only to find out I am not to depressed to start. I am stage 3 bridgeing fibrosis with early cirrhosis, my viral load is 450,000 and thank God the rest of my organs are ok. I also have a second liver disease that is not even in the SSDI blue book, its called STEATOHEPATITIS (fatty liver syndrome) this disease will progress you to cirrhosis quicker than HEP C alone. I lost my husband to AIDS back in 1996, and I could not have children so I have to fight this by myself along with injecting insulin (insulin resistant now from HEP C). My spine is so bad I take morphine just to stay out of bed. Please join me in this fight for our medical care and future treatments. Join me in the fight-Please visit www.hepcchallenge.org and write your senators and congressman and please send an email to kenf@atdn.org (Ken Fornataro) and let him know we are out there and not going to stand by and let his group get all the funding that rightfully belongs to us. Also send your email to the director at hepcchallenge.or and let them know your story. OUR CRIES NEED TO BE HEARD.

Thank you all for listening and supporting me in this community. Let us get the treatment and support we so desperatly need buy being real AMERICANS and joining together to fight for our equal rights to government money.