For the education and research of stiff person syndrome: Céline Dion donates heavily to the clinic where she is treated.
Canadian singer Céline Dion (56) has donated two million US dollars (around 1.9 million euros) to fight stiff person syndrome (SPS). The money will go to the Anschutz Medical Campus of the University of Colorado. There, doctor Amanda Piquet is researching the rare disease that Céline Dion suffers from.
“I feel incredibly honored to receive this recognition to advance this field of research,” said Amanda Piquet. After all, the disease is little known and difficult to diagnose.
“Diagnostic Odyssey” for patients with stiff-person syndrome
“Stiff person syndrome is a progressive neurological autoimmune disease characterized by two main features – muscle spasms and stiffness,” the doctor explained. “Often, patients go through a diagnostic odyssey that can take years before a diagnosis is made,” she told the TV station.
On average, it takes seven years before it is recognized that a person is suffering from SPS. In Céline Dion’s case, this odyssey lasted over a decade before she met Dr. Amanda Piquet two years ago. “She came to us by chance and it was a great relationship and we worked really hard with her to treat the symptoms and get her on a good treatment path,” the doctor said of her celebrity patient.
She uses a combination of different measures to treat SPS, from immunotherapy to massage. In Céline Dion’s case, she also used voice therapy.
Amazon documentary as educational work
Céline Dion is not only supporting the fight against stiff person syndrome with a donation. She sees the documentary “I Am: Céline Dion” as an educational effort to make her little-known illness public. The documentary, which has just been released on Amazon, gives a brutal insight into Dion’s life with SPS. A full-length seizure is shown, during which the singer lies on the floor whimpering for almost ten minutes.
Source: Stern
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