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8
Monday, March 22, 2004
STAll \K
THK BATTAUt (HI
Texas singer uses own struggle
with MS to reach out to others
By Bobby Ross Jr.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — The title cut
from country singer Clay
Walker’s seventh studio album,
“A Few Questions,” looks to the
one who hung the stars to
explain: ‘‘How in this world can
we put a man on the moon and
still have a need for a place like
St. Jude’s?”
The Beaumont-bred crooner
with the black cowboy hat did
n’t write the recent Top 10 coun
try hit, whose opening line refers
to St. Jude Children’s Research
Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.,
which treats children with cancer.
But the First time Walker
heard the song and its Job-like
quandaries, he said, “1 got it
immediately. There was no
mistaking that the song would
belong to my life.”
No mistaking it because the
34-year-old Walker — who has
sold 8 million albums, with 11
No. 1 singles, since his 1993
debut — was diagnosed in 1996
with multiple sclerosis.
No one would ever guess it,
though, by looking at the strap
ping Texan, who takes a daily
injection of Copaxone to keep
his MS in check.
‘‘When I was First diagnosed,
it was the most broken that I’ve
ever been. You know, I don’t
think faith is faith until you have
to lest it,” said Walker, a
Christian who will kick off a
nationwide, 15-city ‘“MS Road
Tour” April 1 in Dallas.
“It was like, my faith lit on
Fire at that point,” said the
Houston resident, who is
married with two daughters,
ages 4 and 8. “I went home
and I got on my knees and I
prayed. I don’t know how long
I prayed and cried. I got my
guitar and I played hymns I
learned as a child.”
The tour — an effort to call
attention to the disease and raise
money for research to Find a
cure — marks a remarkable
transformation for a singer who
First experienced facial spasms
and numbness in his right leg
and arm eight years ago.
For a long time. Walker
preferred not to talk about the
disease. He didn’t try to hide it,
he said. But he didn’t bring it
up either.
El
■ate
inj
When I was first
diagnosed, it was
the most broken
that I've ever been.
You know, I don't
think faith is faith
until you have to
test it.
ir:
— Clay Walker
country singer
After meeting people with MS
at many of his concerts, though.
Walker’s outlook changed.
They wanted to know about
his experience so they could
relate it to their own lives, he
said. At the same time, he was
surprised to learn that many
people with MS don’t treat the
condition, either out of fear
Sclerosis Society recogms,
Walker in November
“Ambassador of the Year”
— only the fourth time in
organization’s 58-year hisi
that it has bestowed that hot,
“There are many Celebris
that will lend their names
organizations such as ours,s.,
that’s very important and sin ’
helpful,” said Amey
the MS society’s spokeswonii
“But sometimes th
that point and they giveoffe
selves as well. That is even
deeply appreciated.”
About 400,000 Americ® 1
have MS, which starts withsai r '
symptoms as numbness, tinglij
and fatigue but progresses toi
Ficulty walking and seeing
in some cases, paralysis. It ns
ally strikes people ages20tol
Some patients,
Walker, have “relapsing-reni
ting MS,” periods of seva
symptoms after which patiem > ne
almost totally recover until lit id-
next attack. Other MS
have the worse “secondary^
gressive” fomi, where theflara bun
become more frequent, and te tain
don’t recover from thedamaa
each one causes.
MS occurs when
leji
p/
lelrn 1
Th
“T
or ignorance.
“It’s a serious disease and the
worst thing you can do about it is
nothing,” said Walker, whose No.
1 hits include “If I Could Make
a Living,” “This Woman and
This Man” and “Then What.”
Last year. Walker decided to
do something to help the cause.
He started the nonproFit Band
Against MS Foundation to raise
money for research. The founda
tion recently awarded its First
grant, for $150,000, to the
University of Texas at Houston.
The National Multiple
immune systems go awry
attack the fatty layer of ins
tion, called myelin, that protelyrc
nerve Fibers in the brain airs, b
spine, thus damaging or ev
destroying nerves.
In Walker 's case, the dised
brought him face to face wi
his own mortality.
“I think a lot of little to
that bothered me before rolld
of me like water off a
back,” he said.
Now. he hopes he can prow
“a small ray of hope”topeopl
like him, who suffer from MS.
“It’s much more thananw
opening experience," he saidl
just look out of a different»»'
dow now. The window is mi
bigger now. and it’s also nsl
up so l can smell the flowers'
act
NEWS IN BRIEF
American Indian cocaine addict
ed baby returned to mother
DALLAS — A mother who admitted using
cocaine the day she gave birth has regained cus
tody of her baby after a judge cited a law designed
to prevent American Indian children against being
removed from their homes.
Most mothers of cocaine-addicted babies
would face termination of their parental rights, but
the 18-year-old Alaska native was reunited with
the infant. The child had been taken by social
workers six months ago, shortly after its birth in
September, when they discovered the child tested
positive for drugs.
The federal Indian Child Welfare Act makes it
tougher to remove American Indian children from
their homes even when neglect and abuse may
be obvious.
Congress passed the law in 1978 because
American Indian children had been removed
from their homes at higher rates — 35 percent
in some states — and required to live with non-
Indian parents.
Despite the fact that American Indians
Alaska natives make up less than 1 percenlof
Dallas-Fort Worth population, welfare c;
involving Indian children are starting to sui
more often, posing significant challenges tool
care workers and attorneys.
The trend has caused more attorneys andcij
care workers in the Dallas area to learn aboi
1978 law, which trumps all state child-care
when it comes to removing a child fromap
tially abusive situation.
In Friday’s case, the Texas Department
Family and Protective Services failed to offeii I lac
expert on the mother’s tribe — the TlingitaH
Haida Indian tribes of Alaska — to testify ontliti ficial
customs qnd culture. "We
Geoff Wool, a spokesman for the Test
Department of Family and Protective Services,9
the lack of a tribal expert to testify about the tl
was a factor in Sholden’s ruling. He saidthedept
ment also had failed to offer rehabilitation servis
The woman’s lawyer said she is m 1
undergoing rehabilitation.
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