Inspirational Stories: Mavrik Von Haug

Ali McKerlich is on a mission to share her message of faith and hope. A lifelong athlete, Ali was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease affecting her motor nervous system. Ali responded well initially to treatment but in the
fall of 2010, faced a serious setback that resulted in Ali being admitted to UWMC unable to move any muscles below her neck. Her doctor later told her that most of the medical staff expected her to never walk again. However, after 7
months of intensive medical treatment and rehabilitation Ali left the hospital walking with assistance and now she can walk with the use of leg braces. Throughout that journey Ali never stopped believing in her recovery and leaned
heavily on her faith to bring strength and peace. Additionally, Ali was a pillar of strength and hope for those she met in that journey and continues to share that message with the community in small and large settings.

In December 2010 I was hospitalized. Paralyzed from my neck down, I could move only my head and one finger. My prognosis was grim; a yet-to-be-diagnosed autoimmune disease threatened to take my life. Over the next seven months I would
undergo radical treatments and arduous therapies that medical staff, led by top neurologists, hoped would stop the disease from entering my internal organs and preserve my life—as a quadriplegic. During that dark time I wondered whether
death would not be preferable to such an existence. Today I fully embrace life though I have had to learn to live with the death of “normal,” and the death of previously held dreams. I have lost much but I have gained more.

This book tells the story of how God cared for me while I inhabited the valley of the shadow of death, and how He gave me victory on three battlefields:

* The physical one with my disease;

* The mental/emotional/spiritual one with discouragement and depression; and

* The systemic one with a medical system into which I didn’t neatly fit.

 

Where to find the book:

Ali’s book is available on Amazon –

direct link here


to US Amazon site

The book is now available at this
link on Amazon.ca
for our Canadian friends and family.