Skip to content
  1. Home
  2. South
  3. Local News

Prairie Dog to host fundraiser for MS Liberation Treatment

In the spirit of doing good things in the world, Prairie Dog Drive-In Theatre is donating all the proceeds from its Sept. 12 showing of Charlie St. Cloud to Rita Germain.
Lizz Bottrell The Observer
GN201010309109963AR.jpg
Rita Germain is seen here in a photo from the early 1990s, just a few years after she was officially diagnosed with MS. She began experiencing symptoms of the disease when she was about 17-years-old, but was not diagnosed until she was 20. The year this photo was taken - 1992 - she travelled to Germany to seek treatment for MS. She is a determined young woman with a positive spirit and her desire now to travel to Mexico for this treatment proves she has never given up hope.Photo submitted

In the spirit of doing good things in the world, Prairie Dog Drive-In Theatre is donating all the proceeds from its Sept. 12 showing of Charlie St. Cloud to Rita Germain.

Germain has been living with multiple sclerosis (MS) for the past 25 years and is planning to travel to Cabos San Lucas, Mexico at the end of October for the Liberation Treatment.

This is a new treatment which has recently made headlines world-wide. Patients living with MS will undergo testing to detect whether there are blockages of blood flow in the veins going from the neck to the head. If there are blockages, the doctors will operate by inserting a balloon (or numerous balloons if a number of veins are effected) to open up the blocked veins.

The Liberation Treatment is not a cure, but many patients who have underwent the procedure report feeling better, leading to a higher quality of life.

The 44-year-old woman from Alida who now lives in Moose Mountain Lodge in Carlyle, originally planned to travel to Vancouver for the testing but since she could not receive the treatment in Canada decided to go to Mexico instead. She has heard of many patients experiencing positive results from receiving the treatment, not just in Mexico but world-wide so she decided she had to see if it could work for her.

Germain has been in a wheelchair for more than eight years and is hoping the treatment will yield some sort of result, whether it be that she can walk again or that she regains movement in areas where she lost movement over the years.

She has a slow-progressing form of MS, but as Germain puts it, "it doesn't feel slow." The young woman has a bright mind and is looking for anyway to try and make her situation better. So far she has been overwhelmed by the response from people in area communities who have donated money to the Rita Germain Trust Fund through the Credit Union branches.

In addition to the Sept. 12 fundrasier at Prairie Dog, the drive-in theatre, located north of Carlyle, has been taking donations for washing windows all summer.

Anyone who cannot make it out to the movie Sept. 12 but would like to help Germain can make a donation to the Rita Germain Trust Fund at any of the Prairie Pride or Spectra Credit Union branches.