Joan Greenspan: regaining her freedom from MS

Walking her usual route home from Buffalo State University in May 1984, Joan Greenspan, a journalism student who graduated from Seaford High School in 1979, passed by the Buffalo Psychiatric Center and glanced at its metal bars. “As I’m walking past them, they were going by faster than I was,” Greenspan, 56, recalled. “I said to myself, ‘What the hell was going on?’”

When she was brought back to Long Island, a doctor told her mother that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, a relatively new diagnostic test back then, showed that she had a brain tumor. Upon a second diagnosis, it turned out that Greenspan did not have an operable tumor; she had multiple sclerosis.

Today, Greenspan sits in her first-floor Copiague apartment unable to leave her house without assistance. The former paralegal once was able to fold up her wheelchair into her Honda Civic and go out with friends, but now, she has difficulty cooking or climbing out of bed. An aide acts as her sous chef during the day, and only after a good night’s rest can she get up for the day.

“When I fall, I wind up in tears out of frustration,” Greenspan admitted, “and being in tears makes me lose my strength. I can’t get myself up.”

According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, multiple sclerosis (MS) is when a person’s immune system disrupts messages within the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. This causes a range of symptoms, from fatigue and difficulty walking to hearing loss and tremors, which varies among people with the disease.

In Greenspan’s own words, “my body is attacking itself.”

Although this disease limited her ability to socialize, a few of her former classmates at Seaford High School joined forces to organize a fundraiser to be held on June 3 at the Sunset Grill in Seaford. All proceeds will go towards a handicap-accessible vehicle that Greenspan can ride into with a motorized chair.

“I will have freedom for the first time in six years,” Greenspan said when asked about this vehicle’s purpose. “I would go to friend’s houses, I would go shopping, I would go to the beach… Oh my god it would be great.”

One of the fundraiser’s organizers, 57-year-old Carol Lannon Langon of Seaford, said that local businesses have responded well to the fundraiser. She explained that her basement is “basket central” with raffle prizes, and during her lunch hour a few weeks ago, some businesses, like Platinum Hair Salon, gave her more than just a space for a flier in their window.

“Some of them asked if I would like a gift certificate,” Langon said, “I wasn’t even asking. I was just putting out fliers.”

Greenspan was overwhelmed with the Seaford community’s support, saying that she was shocked with how much those who she never meet or have not seen in three decades came out to support her.

“It blows my mind that these people have come out of the woodwork and have done so much for me,” Greenspan said. “And, if it weren’t for Facebook, I would not be back in touch with any of them."