May 8, 2015 – Las Cruces, NM - On this edition of PUENTES, bridges the community, Emily Guerra meets with El Paso Crohn’s & Autoimmune Disease Support Group Founder and CEO, Carrie Wilkie-Sambrano, to bring awareness of this illness to the community. Crohn’s is an inflammatory disease of the digestive system. The group helps individuals cope with related gastrointestinal diseases: colitis, celiac disease, and IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome); and autoimmune illnesses: lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and MS.
Over ten years ago she was diagnosed with Crohn’s and other autoimmune diseases. She lives a full life and has not let the disease control her. Wilkie-Sambrano was inspired to start the local support group after finding out that the closest groups were in Phoenix, Arizona and Dallas, Texas. Although she is of Vietnamese descent, she says the disease is not as prevalent in the Asian community as the Caucasian ethnicity, the Jewish community, and now, studies have shown, in the Hispanic population.
More than 40 countries will be recognizing “World IBD Day” (Inflammatory Bowel Diseases) on May 19th. The monthly meeting of El Paso Crohn’s & Auto Immune Support Group will also meet on May 19th at Texas Tech University Health Science Center in the Academic Services Building, 4800 Alberta Avenue in El Paso, Texas.
For more information contact Carrie Wilkie-Sambrano on her cell phone (214) 708-2989; or her email at ccwilkie@epcrohns.com; or www.facebook.com/elpaso.crohns.