Saving Each Other
“Sometimes we’re given a physical or spiritual
challenge that we have no idea how we’re going to rise to. In this riveting
account of a mother-daughter love story and their urgent search for a cure, we’re
made aware of the power that dwells inside utter necessity. By the end of this
book, you’ll laugh, cry, rage, and rejoice…and you’ll feel that lovely
connection to life that you only get when you pass through your dark night of
the soul.”
Kathy Freston, New York Times bestselling author The Lean
On the surface, Victoria Jackson is the American Dream personified: from a troubled childhood and unfinished high school education, she overcame immeasurable odds to create a cosmetics empire valued at more than half a billion dollars. Married to Bill Guthy — self-made principal of infomercial marketing giant Guthy-Renker — Victoria’s most treasured role is mother to three beautiful, beloved children, Evan, Ali, and Jackson. Suddenly, Victoria’s dream life is broken as she begins to battle a mother’s greatest fear. In 2008, her daughter, Ali, began experiencing unusual symptoms of blurred vision and an ache in her eye. Ali’s test results led to the diagnosis of Neuromyelitis Optica. NMO is a little understood, incurable, and often fatal autoimmune disease that can cause blindness, paralysis, and life-threatening seizures, and afflicts as few as 20,000 people in the world. At the age of 14, Ali was given a terrifying prognosis of four to six years to live. Saving Each Other begins just as Victoria and Bill learn of Ali’s disease, starting them on a powerful journey to save their only daughter. They even brought together a team of more than 50 of the world’s leading experts in autoimmune and NMO-related diseases to create the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation. Told in alternating viewpoints, Victoria and Ali narrate their very different journeys of coming to terms with the lack of control that neither mother nor daughter have over NMO, and their pioneering efforts and courage to take their fight to a global level. Bringing their story to light with raw emotion, humor, warmth, and refreshing candor, Saving Each Other is the extraordinary journey of a mother and daughter who demonstrate how the power of love can transcend our greatest fears, while at the same time battling to find a cure for the incurable.
Praise