Dear Friends and Family,  

OUR FAMILY COMMITMENT: Our family will always remember only the fond memories of Mae Portillo, mother of Hector Portillo, Johnny Portillo, and Louis Portillo.  All four have have lost their lives to HD.  But we will never forget what HD did to  them; the anguish and suffering that they endured, and the loss of autonomy and dignity that the disease robbed them of.  In honor of their memory, we will keep fighting for the cure so that future generations will never have to live in fearing of inheriting this horrific disease.   PLEASE JOIN US IN OUR FIGHT TO ERADICATE HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE.

Please sponsor "Team Mi MaMa " (Michael, Margie & Marie) for our 6th Annual Walk for the Cure.  My children count on me (their Mama) friends, family and the community to support our HD researchers.  Their fate is in our hands.

HD has slowly robbed Marie and Michael of their ability to walk and talk, and Margie is courageously clinging on to making life as normal as she can for as long as she can, but it is becoming less and less possible for her.    It is not too late to change what is stamped in their DNA .  My children never knew their paternal grandmother, Mae, who died of Huntington's Disease at the age of 46.  My grandchildren never knew their  grandfather, Hector, who died at the age of 42, nor his brothers, Louis or Johnny, who also died of HD.  

I pray that my daughter, Margie, will be with us to one day tell her future grandchildren about days gone by when familes and friends gathered around the UCI Campus  for the annual HD Walk for the Cure - balloons flying over a beautiful Saturday morning sky as Commander Chuck Street landed his KTLA chopper - truly one of the happiest days of the year for HD families.  She would tell them how surrounded by friends, families, researchers, and the business community  in a crusade that symbolized leadership, perseverance, love, generosity, gratitude and hope, these days lead to the THE CURE, ending a familial disease that had been passed on through the ages.  She would tell them that they would never have to worry about HD again. 

Please support Team Mi Mama and help make this mother's vision of the future come true. Together we can make this THE LAST GENERATION OF HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE.   Thank you. 

Frances  

Please visit www.hdsaoc.org