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Patients' Lives Made Better

Jennifer Mason – Believing in the future for others

For as long as she can remember, Jennifer Mason wanted to be a musician. But in her mid-twenties and in the midst of completing her second musical degree, everything suddenly changed when Jennifer began to experience joint pain and debilitating fatigue. She was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

RA is a disease that causes painful swelling of joints and can damage cartilage, bone, tendons, and ligaments. In 1980, when Jennifer was diagnosed, the treatment protocol for RA was quite different from today. Until the use of MRI technology, no one knew that irreparable damage occurred in joints even before it showed up on x-rays. Jennifer’s flares came and went, worsening over time until both her hands and feet were severely deformed, ending her ability to play musical instruments.

During the nearly 30 years that Jennifer has lived with her disease there have been huge breakthroughs in prevention and treatment. After years of struggling with various drug therapies and having undergone several surgeries, a ray of hope began to shine, when five years ago a newly developed drug therapy brought a dramatic improvement to her health allowing here to live without pain for the first time in years.

 “Because of research, someone diagnosed today with the same severity I had might never experience any joint deformity at all," she says. "That’s why research matters. For the first time in many years, I’m not living with constant pain. Because of research I feel great, and I’m enjoying activities I thought were gone from my life forever."

There’s always an answer. We’ll find it.

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