Elizabeth Birney Gagliardi was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis during the summer of 1997.
Her first exasperation happened while she was vacationing with her husband Jim and 3 children Kate,Nicholas and Conor at a beach in Charleston Rhode Island.
At the time Liz had just passed her 35th birthday. Beside caring for her aging grandmother, raising her 3 children and managing the affairs of a huge victorian home built in 1865 ,she was employed as a critical care nurse in the intensive care unit at Midstate Hospital in Meriden Connecticut working 12 hour shifts. She was also an outstanding distance runner having won many awards while in High School, College and afterwards as a participant in many marathons, the last event she won was in the year before she was diagnosed.
Her years with the disease has taken its toll on her, but thankfuly she has been able to have a quality life because of her familys support especially her husband Jim and her three children As well as new medicines discovered and rehabilitation when she needs it . She no longer runs marathons but she coaches the spring and winter girls track teams at Sheehan High School in Wallingford where she has lived her entire life.
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