Birthdays

OMIGOD!!!

What an amazing weekend! Barbara, my godmother, made me the coolest gift ever, this amazing website about my life, that our friend Dave helped her build. I LOVE IT!!! And, I loved painting with Max, Natan, and Willy, It was so much fun. I can’t wait to do it again.
Thanks everyone.
Lots of love,
Sam

FD Familial Dysautonomia

Sam’s letter to the NYT’s editor

New York Times
June 22, 2003

Disney Channel
Another View

To the Editor:

I
was really glad to read your article about how the Disney Channel has
developed successful shows with minority characters [”At the Disney
Channel, It’s a Diverse World After All” by Marc Weingarten, May 25].
Disney has also been one of the best kid’s channels at making great
stories with believable characters who have different kinds of
disabilities. Its made-for-TV movies, like ”Tru Confessions” (about a
teenager with a developmental disability and his twin sister) and
”Most Valuable Primate” (about a deaf girl who befriends a chimp),
are almost the only shows on television where you can see what its like
for those of us who are part of another important minority.

SAMANTHA MYERS, Manhattan

The writer, who is 14, has the genetic disorder familial dysautonomia.

Family and friends · FD Familial Dysautonomia

Natan interviews Samantha

Natan_2
3/13/03. Samantha Myers is a fourteen year old girl. She
lives with her parents and her dog, Smokey. She has a rare Jewish genetic disorder
called Familial Disautonomia. It affects the motor system and she has trouble
swallowing. She has a button in her stomach; she gets fluids in this manner. A
syringe is put into the top of the button and the plunger pushes the fluid into
her stomach. She has gone on national television and explained what F.D. is.
She also raises money for the F.D. foundation, to find a cure. I am Samantha’s friend and I interviewed her when she was 14 and I was 13 years old, in 2003.

Continue reading “Natan interviews Samantha”