Neyland family working for a cure for Muscular Dystrophy

My parents, David and Ruth Neyland, and I volunteered for our fifteenth year at the Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon. My younger sister, Betsy, and I were diagnosed with a form of MD called Friedreich's Ataxia, when we were children. NewsWest 9 hosts the local portion, with Crystal Crews, Michael Stafford, and Tom Teferteller as emcees. Every cent raised during the local segments stays in west Texas, helping hundreds of MD patients with various things such as sending children to camp, flu shots, wheelchair repairs, neurologist visits, etc.

This year I got to spend time with some of the Jackalopes hockey team, which was my highlight of the day. They talked with me, and I was given the chance to sit with them while they were working the phone booth. The general manager, Joe Clark, presented me with the Jackalopes jersey that he wore while being interviewed.
Crystal Crews interviewed me about what MDA has done in my family's life in the past. All of us involved in MDA have become a sort of familial unit, and the telethon always provides a reunion. The national broadcast is held in Las Vegas. Over $65 million was raised nationally, which largely goes toward research for the many different forms of MD.

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