Montco Woman To Hike To Raise Awareness, Money For Rare Disease
By Brad Segall
FORT WASHINGTON, Pa. (CBS) - A Fort Washington woman will spend nearly a month hiking the Appalachian Trail to raise money and awareness about an extremely rare disease that causes premature aging and death.
Amy Ruhf met the Falcone family of Erdenheim through her Ambler church. The Falcones have two boys -- Nathan and Bennett -- who are two of only 114 children worldwide to have the genetic mutation known as 'progeria.'
Ruhf, an athletic trainer, will spend 27 days hiking 250 miles, hoping to raise $25,000. She says it's not something she had planned to do:
"It came from out of nowhere. It was completely out of the blue. I'm not a hiker, it just dropped out of the sky and it's as if God was saying to me 'go hike 250 miles…raise funds and awareness while doing it'."
She begins the adventure Friday at the Delaware Water Gap, and will keep going until she hits the Gettysburg area.
Members of the church will take turns bringing her more food and water and she plans to blog about the journey.