Friend's struggle sparked an MS mission

Friend's struggle sparked an MS mission
By Ernest Hooper, Metro Columnist
In print: Saturday, September 13, 2008


Jackie Callaway and Michele Green shared a special bond during their early 20s.

Like many young women, they went out to eat, watched movies and just enjoyed sharing stories in a small Central Florida community north of Tampa.

Through the years, they kept in touch as Callaway's broadcasting career took her to a radio station in Tampa, then to a television station in Orlando. Michele blossomed too, working at an insurance agency and becoming the quintessential soccer mom with two young children.

One day in the late 1990s, Jackie was preparing to do a live shot in Lake County for the Orlando station. A car pulled over and a voice called out, "Hey Jackie, it's Michele."

"Her mom was driving, and I didn't recognize Michele, the vibrant light of a person I knew," said Callaway, now the consumer reporter for WFTS-Ch. 28. "She tells me right there on the side of the road that she has multiple sclerosis. She starts crying, and I'm fighting back tears.

"From then on, we stayed connected."

Callaway began visiting Michele on a regular basis, first at Michele's home, then at a nursing home as the MS slowly took her life.

"I had never experienced anything like that," Callaway said. "I was clueless about MS until watching Michele go through it. I kept asking friends, can't we do something about this terrible disease?"

Michele died in 2002, but Callaway's passion to help lives on.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article808596.ece