Local woman reaches milestone despite MS

By JACKIE STARK – Journal Staff Writer and The Associated Press (jstark@miningjournal.net) , The Mining Journal

As Gina Anderson stands on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, 19,336 feet above sea level, she’s a far cry from where she was two years ago: in an office half a world away, listening to a doctor diagnose her with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease which causes the body to attack the myelin sheaths that insulate the nerves.

Symptoms include weakness in the extremities, numbness, difficulty with coordination and balance and, in severe cases, impairment of cognitive function and paralysis.

The people she’s with on the mountain comprise a wide variety of occupations and ages, from a 24-year-old psychologist to a 79-year-funeral director. They also suffer from MS or Parkinson’s disease.

Though Anderson has managed to steer clear of altitude sickness, others in the group are experiencing its symptoms: dizziness, disorientation, memory loss. Some won’t even remember reaching this peak, the highest in Africa.

Though exhausted, she has managed to achieve something that most people in the world, with or without MS, will never do. She’s climbed one of the world’s Seven Summits.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” said Anderson, a born-and-raised Yooper who has worked in the Gwinn Area Community Schools district as a music teacher for the last 11 years.

Her journey began two years ago. While training for an Ironman competition, Anderson noticed her vision was altered. She was riding her bike when the scenery began changing.