A woman who grew up in the Steinbach area has made it her mission to educate people about Lyme disease. Jolene Gonzales, who now lives in Canton, Ohio, says her husband contracted the disease in 2007 in Pansy while attending her brother's wedding. But she says the medical community is largely uninformed about Lyme disease and it took years before he was properly diagnosed and treated. She explains some of the things they went through along the way.

"We kind of had an idea after a year of what it was but nobody would listen to us. We were tossed over to many different specialists who said things like; 'He's got a brain tumour', 'He has MS', 'He has mono'. He was in the hospital for a week and we saw 13 doctors. The last one they sent him was a shrink (psychiatrist) because, apparently, it was all in his head. The problem was they were using the Elisa test, back from the 70's which is highly inaccurate."

Gonzales' husband is slowly getting better but is still housebound nine years after first getting sick. She says his Lyme disease started out with flu-like symptoms, then progressed to vision and hearing issues followed by problems in his digestive system and even some paralysis.

Gonzales wants everyone to know it's not just ticks that carry the disease.

"It's been proven to be transmitted sexually over time. (Gonzales herself got Lyme disease in this way from her husband). And also, mothers are passing it on to fetuses. There is a local family here, the Friesens, that know that very well. The mother had it and didn't know and passed it on. So it's just really important that people understand this disease. It's becoming an epidemic."

Gonzales has organized a Lyme disease benefit dinner and dance Saturday night in Pansy. It begins at 5:00 and will include information about the disease

Jolene Gonzales shares here story.