The Boerne Star (Boerne, Tex.), Vol. 103, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, March 6, 2009 Page: 17 of 28
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FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 2009
The BOERNE Star
Page 17A
Walk for MS has special meaning for Boerne family
BY Elina Tuckir
• Staff Writer
Erin O’Neill, a 2007 Boerne
High School graduate, was wrap-
ping up finals week when she felt
the prickling start in her legs. It
was the end of her first semester
at Texas Tech. She was 18 years
old.
Steve O’Neill drove his daughter
into San Antonio for an already-
scheduled medical appointment
and waited as she had an MRI.
The two were on their way back to
Boerne when the father answered .
his cell phone only to hear, “Mr.
O’Neill, I have to inform you
that your daughter has multiple
sclerosis. She has white spots on
her brain."
Fifteen months later it’s still not
easy for Steve O’Neill to repeat
these words, to remember how he
had to pull into the H-E-B parking
lot to process the diagnosis, how
he had to relay the horrifying ver-
dict to his teenaged daughter. His
eyes struggle with tears, as does
his voice. “So that’s when she
was diagnosed with MS,” Steve
O’Neill said, as he recalled that
afternoon.
Up to the point when his daugh-
ter’s disease was identified, the
family had little experience with
illness, Steve O’Neill said. “Maybe
we took things for granted a little
bit. We thought we were bullet- chair?” she asked.
proof.” The family skied, were “I felt like my whole
actively involved in sports. “We world was crashing
worked out - you name it," he down on me,” Erin
said. O’Neill said of her
But when Erin O’Neill’s autoim- initial, headlong colli-
mune defenses struck so abruptly, sion with the disease,
violently against her own central “I completely broke
nervous system - with the girl’s down.”
presumptions for a healthy life In the beginning it
instantly jeopardized - all that was difficult to find
the family had taken for granted reassurance in their
suddenly turned on end. “I just doctor’s optimism,
thought she was going to be a “’There’s hope for this;
mess for the rest of her life,” Steve there’s medication for
O’Neill said. this; we can deal with
Not surprisingly, that was the this,’” Steve O’Neill
teenager’s first question too. “Am said, recalling the
I going to have to live in a wheel- doubt with which he
listened to the physi-
I cian’s encouragement.
“But here we are 15
-I. months later, and yes,
tA1]s we can.”
. ; 5- the i t Today, according
to parents Steve and
Carol O’Neill, “you’d -------
never know anything
was wrong with Erin.” And one
of the factors to which they give
I enormous credit is Walk MS -
a National Multiple Sclerosis
i Society fund-raising and aware-
ness-raising affair that takes place
I in San Antonio tomorrow.
According to the elder O’Neills,
many people are confined to
wheelchairs by MS because at
l the time of their diagnoses cur-
rent medications had not yet
, been developed. In recent years,
though, treatments have made
rapid advancements due to events
- like Walk MS.
I “I mean, you hear this all the
time: ‘Oh they’re so close.’ But
they are truly close to developing
an oral medication that suppresses
90 percent of MS relapses,” Steve
• O’Neill said.
Courtesy photo “When people support MS and
Friends of the O’Neill family - Trey McCarty, Marc Domenico, Abby Long and Mary Pat support me it is the best feeling.
Snell (carrying banner) - flank multiple sclerosis fighter, Erin O’Neill (in pink sweatshirt) Saturday’s walk is so impor-
during last year’s Walk MS in San Antonio, tant to my family and me,” Erin
Here's how you can help
Erin’s Armada will walk in the 2009 Walk MS
Saturday, March 7, at the AT&T Center. Day of
event registration and check-in begins at 7:30
a.m. and the Walk steps out at 9:30 a.m. More
information is available at www.nationalmsso-
ciety.org.
Those wanting to contact the O’Neills for
multiple sclerosis support may do so by email-
ing Carol and Steve O’Neill at oneillst@satx.
rr.com.
Donations can be made by check to NMSS
(National Multiple Sclerosis Society)
c/o Carol & Steve O’Neill, 30020 Royal
Mustang Cir, Fair Oaks Ranch, TX 78015,
or by donating to “Erin’s Armada” at www.
nationalmssociety.org.
O’Neill said. “If anyone wants to
come out and support my cause it
would mean so much - if anyone
else wants to show up and walk
in my name, our team is called
Erin’s Armada. We wear pink
or green or camo,” the teenager
added. To a college sophomore,
it seems fashion synchronic-
ity matters, no matter what the
occasion.
“A lot of people do the walk
for us, because they love us and
because they want Erin to get
well. Every day we are closer and
closer to a cure,” Carol O’Neill
said of the Walk’s intent. Money
raised by Walk MS not only
furthers refinement of multiple
sclerosis treatments, but works
on behalf of many other autoim-
mune diseases, Carol O’Neill
said.
At this time, Erin O’Neill’s doing
remarkably well. She gives her-
self daily injections to combat the
MS lesions that daily threaten her
brain tissue and spinal
cord. She’s active in uni-
versity life. She’s happy
and hopeful. But life
isn’t altogether carefree.
Every time the phone
rings, hearts threaten
to stop, the teenager’s
parents said. Then they
laughed resignedly.
Their daughter is a “go-
getter,” according to
Carol O’Neill.
Steve O’Neill holds
one particular memory
close, a scene in which
he flies down the white
slopes of a Colorado
snowfall. His daugh-
ter, younger then, skis
behind him, singing
loudly the hit, “I Get
Knocked Down, But I
Get Up Again.”
“That’s her,” Steve
O’Neill chuckled.
“I told her that after-
noon in the H-E-B
parking lot, T will never give
up on you, I don’t care if I have
to work at it for the rest of my
life, until I die. I will support this
cause..’” Steve O’Neill said.
“This is the reason why we
walk,” Carol O’Neill said, “not
just so we can find a cure, but
also to support all of the people
with MS.”
MARY ALICE’S POTPOURRI
Mary Alice
Yelverton
Mary Alice Yelverton is ill. Her
column will return next week.
Nelson City Dance Hall
1/2 mile off IH-10, Exit 533 Welfare • 830.537.3835
_______nelsoncitydancehall.com1 • myspace.com/nelsoncity________
E
Longnecks
50 Wells
w tewho VAVv
- LIVE IN LUCKENBACH -
March 6 - Jimmy Lee Jones @ 3pm
Dance w/Mike Blakely & The Whiskey Traders @ 8pm
March 7 - Duke Davis @ 1pm
The Original Texas Star Trailride @ 4pm
Dance w/Dusty Britches & the Rhythm Ranch Hands @ 8pm
March 8- T& C Miller @ 1pm • Cowboy Doug Davis @ 5pm
- NELSON City DANCEHALL -
$1 Longnecks and $1.50 Wells plus Free Live Music Every Friday
March 7 - South Texas Destroyers
March 14 - Cathy Bowers • March 20 - Billy Morgan
- Floore’s Country Store -
March 6 - Doug Moreland
March 7 - Mark McKinney plus Kyle Bennett
- Honbo’s on MAIN, FREDERICKSBURG -
March 6 - Ben Beckendorf
March 7 - Gary Claxton with Erik Hokkanen
March 8 - Steve Brooks
- Gruene Hall -
March 6 - the dubdudes acoustic tour with porterdavis @ 8pm
March 7 - Lost Immigrants t-5pm
Brandon Rhyder with Jackson Taylor @ 9pm
March 8 - Gospel Brunch with a Texas Twist 10:30am
Bret Graham 12:30-4:30pm
The Bellville Outfit 5-9pm
- llTH STREET Cowboy BAR, BANDERA -
Check our website for more information!
www. 11 thstreetcowboybar.com
Free Live Music Every Friday
3/7 - South Texas Destroyers
3/14 - Cathy Bowers • 3/20 - Billy Morgan
Nelson City Dancehall is available for your special occasion!
Make your event one to remember. Call 210.269.2278 for more info.
The Peach Tree is now
«D E ACH
PLACI
E
A F
C
. Breakfast
Tuesday - Saturday
′ 7:30 -10am
• Lunch Daily
11-2pm
. Sunday Brunch
• Homemade Granola & Yogurt
• Blueberry Pancakes
• Breakfast Tacos
448 S. Main, Boerne, TX 78006
249-8583
Bergheim Cellars
Fine Wines Spirits Gourmet
Weekly wine, spirit or beer
tastings every Saturday.
46 Crossing Shopping Center
1 FM 3351 South, Suite 150
Boerne, Texas 78006
830.229.5233
www.bergheimcellars.com
Gallery & Studio • Art Classes
Behind Downright Texas
830-995-5958
www.nancyn
C
OLD FASHIONED
MEAT MARKET
Fresh Meat Daily
Gas • Groceries • Beer • Ice
BAR-B-Q
Served All Day Lunch • Dinner
• Sandwiches • Plates
• By the Pound • Brisket
• Turkey Breast • Chicken
• Pork Ribs • Sausage
491 S. Main & River Road
• Boerne •
249-2546
Monday - Friday K | /
6am - 8pm
Saturday & Sunday 1
8am - 8pm Shell
EEXASS
EVERYSODYs Somebody
1 in LUCKENBACH
www.luckenbachtexas.com
888-311-8990
CO
NOW OPEN
000006
BAR a n d GRILL
( ) ok 0A ,
r
Wine Gxberience.
susaekny blasaatsk.0 fito
neldining
Open for Lunch & Dinner • Lunch Special S6.99
Happy Hour from 5- 7 pm every day
Enjoy the Spurs games here
Take-out • Catering • Open on Mondays
29202 ralph fan road • fair oaks ranch, tx 78015 • 830.981.8878
============= ===========================================s=-==--3-=============-=======================================-===========-==== ========
3A
18DS
830-331-1392
%)TIE
David & Jill Finnie
Owners
830-249-1100
109 Waterview Pkwy.
Suite 103
Boerne, TX 78006
www.water2wine.com
PLAZA PACKAGE
•Beer • Liquors • Wines • Mixes "
262 S. Main • Boerne • (830) 249-2285
Drive-In Window Service • Mon - Sat: 10 am - 9 pm
Popov Vodka 1.75 Ltr (80°).........
McCormick Gin 1.75 Ltr (80°)......
Black Velvet 1.75 Ltr (80°)..........
Rio Grande Tequila 1.75 Ltr (80°)
DeWars Scotch 1.75 Ltr (80°)......
Wild Turkey 1.75 Ltr (101°).........
Prices Good Thru 03-12-09
In case of error, store price prevails.
MAIN SQUARE FOODS
1123 N. MAIN ST
Across from Library
It’s waaay better than fast food.
It’s Wendy's."
$1 199
$1249
$1399
$1749
$3299
$3549
Come on across and check out
Our New Store & New Attitude!
Bud Light Bottles 12 Pack $8M
2 Red Bulls Boz for $299
Marlboro $399
Surgeon General’s Warning Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide
OLD FASHIONED
, HAMBURGERS.
NOW HIRING
CREW
MEMBERS
America’s
Drive-In.
1242 S. Main • 830-816-3037
#99 12465 Bandera Road
Boerne, Texas 78006
210-695-1935
ruise to
Sonic
for friendly carhop
service and
freshly made menu items,
like our Famous Extra-Long
Cheese Coneys.
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Cartwright, Brian. The Boerne Star (Boerne, Tex.), Vol. 103, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, March 6, 2009, newspaper, March 6, 2009; Boerne, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1667385/m1/17/?rotate=270: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Patrick Heath Public Library.