GOSPEL SING FRIDAY TO BENEFIT MS SUFFERER

JACKSON -- Just one year ago, 31-year old Robin White was an energetic, busy woman. She operated a daycare in her home and served as a teacher for the children's ministry at First General Baptist Church. These activities were in addition to her roles as a wife and mother.

In January, White was diagnosed with mitochondrial myophty, a progressive illness related to muscular dystrophy that causes muscle weakness and exercise intolerance. A month later, she learned she also had multiple sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system that also affects muscle coordination.

Neither disease is curable and treatments are limited.

Now, just getting to the telephone can be draining, and White has to use a wheelchair whenever she needs to run an errand outside her home. She had to close her daycare, and Amber, 14, and Amy, 10, have taken over all cooking and household chores.

A benefit gospel sing will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at First General Baptist Church to help the family offset medical costs, which won't be covered by White's health insurance until October because her illnesses were a pre-existing condition. White currently visits a local neurologist monthly and travels to St. Louis every three months for additional check-ups.

The benefit will feature numerous local and regional gospel groups, including The Southern Brothers, From the Heart, and soloists Robyn Hosp and Andrea Penzel, among others. All proceeds raised during the project will be matched by the Modern Woodmen of America up to $2,500.

Marci Mann, a friend of White's and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, said the organization performs a matching funds project every six months. She is confident the group will have to match the maximum amount of $2,500.

"I think enough people are going to pull together to help her out because she is a good person and needs the help," she said.

White said Mann, other church members and friends have been a steady source of help to her family. Church members prepared the family's dinner every night for the first three months of her illness, and "not a day goes by" that she doesn't receive a phone call, visit or letter in the mail.

"Every time I started to get down, something would happen. I know God sent them to me because when I needed something they were always coming," she said. "I didn't ask for these diseases, but the church, everybody's been there for me. The whole situation has been amazing."