Tick Boot Camp

Kristi Kusske is a 37-year-old Registered Nurse (RN) and Functional Diagnostic Nutritional Practitioner from Lakeville, Minnesota. She is the entrepreneurial founder of Enlightened Integrative Wellness. Ms. Kusske’s Lyme disease journey is both personal and parental. Despite suffering from classic Lyme disease symptoms, including brain fog and fatigue, she was not diagnosed by western educated med...

Briana Jamshidi is a 27-year-old Registered Nurse (RN) and certified personal trainer from Charleston, South Carolina. Ms. Jamshidi loved to lift weights, run races, dance, go to concerts, attend music festivals, and was a top performer on her National Guard physical fitness test. At the age of 21, Ms. Jamshidi suddenly fell ill while attending her annual training with the Army National Guard in V...

Dr. Rosalie Greenberg MD is a Board-Certified Adult, Child, and Adolescent Psychiatrist from Summit, New Jersey. She is known for her expertise in the diagnosis and management of complex problems in children and pediatric psychopharmacology. Dr. Greenberg earned her MD from the Ivy League Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she served as chief resident and then member of...

Heather Gray is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner with a background in advanced DNA and mold from Colorado. She uses her skills to help other tick-borne disease patients heal. Prior to getting sick, Ms. Gray experienced childhood trauma and didn’t have a “normal” child’s life. She contracted Lyme disease at the young age of 13 and aggressive symptoms began when she was 15. Some of Ms....

Dr. John Allocca is a medical research scientist and biophysicist from “the Lyme capital of the world”: Long Island, New York. He is the author of more than 60 books on medicine, physics, nutrition, and photography and the founder of Allocca Biotechnology. Dr. Allocca’s journey with Lyme disease began over 30 years ago when he began to suffer knee pain, headaches and fatigue. Despite his medical t...

Alexis Raleigh is a 25-year-old reporter from upstate New York. She has a bachelor’s degree in business management from Binghamton University and a master’s degree in broadcasting and journalism from Syracuse University. Ms. Raleigh was “able to do anything” before she got sick when she was 20 years old. Some of her symptoms included severe headaches, nerve pain, POTS, neck pain, and neurological...

Dianna Brescia is a holistic wellness coach, the entrepreneurial founder of Kitchen Remedy and native New Yorker residing in sunny California. Ms. Brescia grew up in the bosom of an ethnic New York Italian family. The practice of daily food preparation during her childhood had nurtured and connected her with her culture and family despite being “unable to function like a normal person or do normal...

Katie Bork is a 23-year-old nurse from Loveland, Colorado. She is currently on a healing sabbatical from her passion profession. Although she was symptomatic since the age of 10, she largely enjoyed an idyllic childhood. However, in 2011 her health bounced back and forth between “failure to thrive” to weight gain in “excess of 60 pounds” trigging her to regularly visit the hospital Last year, her...

Phyllis Bedford is the founder of LymeLight Foundation , a not-for-profit whose mission is to provide grants which enable eligible children and young adults with Lyme disease to receive proper treatment and medication as well as to raise awareness about Lyme disease. Ms. Bedford is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Economics. She uses her God-given talents to help the chronic Ly...

Tiffany Perez is a 35-year-old professional tattoo artist from Pine Brook, New Jersey. Ms. Perez led a very busy and productive life and owned her own business before getting sick with Lyme disease. Ms. Perez had a stroke and then was diagnosed with COVID. Next, shortly after COVID, she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Some of Ms. Perez’s symptoms included extreme brain fog, Bell's palsy, hallucin...

Flora Deborah is a 38-year-old artist, sculptor and photographer from Tel Aviv, Israel. Ms. Deborah was born in Evian, France and raised in Milan, Italy. During her childhood in Italy, she discovered an aptitude and love for the drawing arts. In 2015, she moved to Israel to attend graduate school. Shortly after earning a master’s in fine arts degree and beginning a career as a sculptor, a friend n...

Lauren Murphree is a 29-year-old certified IV technician from Tennessee. She’s also the author of Silent Suffering: Finding God's Faithfulness in Chronic Lyme Disease . Ms. Murphree was flourishing and working full time. She was an athlete and was very social. Ms. Murphree was first diagnosed with Lyme disease when she was 9 years old, but it didn’t “wreak havoc” in her life until she was...

Jennifer Sala is a 32-year-old herbalist and research writer from Ellsworth, Maine. Ms. Sala was a healthy baby, and she was accepted into her school’s talented and gifted program at a young age. She was bit by ticks all throughout her life but didn’t know what they were. Ms. Sala’s health started to decline after a tick bite when she was 4 years old, and she crashed at the age of 10 shortly after...

Micaela Hoo is a 28-year-old freelance content creator, social media manager, Global Lyme Alliance (GLA) peer mentor, and entrepreneur from Los Angeles, California. She is the co-creator of My July, a clean skin care brand. Born in the eastern United States Lyme belt, Ms. Hoo’s childhood was interrupted by persistent illness, learning difficulties, issues with word recall, and heightened sensitivi...

Dr. Christine Arseneau is a 38-year-old pharmacist who spent 6 years training at a hospital before managing an integrative compounding pharmacy where she now works today. She is the founder of Lyme Support which serves clients suffering with Lyme disease and tick-borne infections, is certified in Clinical Cannabinoid Pharmacy, and has a Functional Medicine Certification in Health Coaching. Despite...

Dana Papadopoulos is a 30-year-old not-for-profit Media Director residing in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ms. Papadopoulos was transformed from an active, healthy, athletic child and young adult to a chronically ill 18-year-old woman. Then, for almost a decade, she battled a series of seemingly separate symptoms including anorexia, extreme GI issues, gastroparesis, POTS, EDS, fibromyalgia, ovarian c...

Amber Benge is a 39-year-old young woman from Hickory, North Carolina who is now a sustainable farmer growing her own food and medicine at Grace Walk Farm. She’s a trained victim advocate and her professional background is in working with women who have addiction issues and are victims of sex trafficking. Ms. Benge was bit by a tick when she was 5 years old during a family vacation. She got a bull...

Daisy Ilchovska is a 36-year-old nutritional therapist , researcher, and author from Bournemouth, England. She is the founder of Optimal Health Nutrition , a virtual clinic established to help people overcome health challenges through evidence-based strategies. At the age of 26, Ms. Ilchovska was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and doctors told her to expect to be permanently disabled in less...

Christèle Dumas-Gonnet is the 48-year-old co-founder of ChroniLyme , a patient advocacy association dedicated to improving diagnosis and treatment of chronic Lyme disease, based in Lyon, France. She is also a member of the European Lyme patient engagement collective PREFACE (Patient Resource Facilitator Europe) . Shortly before the end of her university studies, she began to suffer from fatigue, a...

Dr. Jaban Moore is a Doctor of Chiropractic and founder of the Redefining Wellness Center located in Kansas City, Missouri. The mission of Redefining Wellness Center is to educate people about the root causes of chronic illness to help them to find true healing. The foundation of Dr. Moore’s passion for restoring health through a multi therapeutic approach was informed by witnessing his mother str...

Sarah Lombard is a 27-year-old social media marketing, management, and creation professional from Scottsdale, Arizona. Prior to attending college, she enjoyed a very social teen life that included “the worst diet known to man”. She would “eat candy and cookies for lunch with some fries and coming home, starving, eating frozen dinners and spoons full of sugar”. At the age of 17 she began to get sic...

Vanessa Nolet is a 29-year-old young woman from Quebec, Canada. She is working on finishing up a bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Management. Prior to getting sick with Lyme disease, Ms. Nolet had a great life filled with friends and sports. She worked at a spa while going to college and was exposed to Freon during an accident which changed her life. Around this time, Ms. Nolet was bit by a tick an...

Kahlil Fuller , stage name “Two Monies”, is a singer, songwriter, musician, and entertainer from Charlotte, North Carolina. Shortly after graduating from North Carolina A & T with a degree in marketing he “noticed a huge rash on [his] left leg” while working out at the gym. He assumed the rash was from a harmless “bug bite” until he began to limp 5 or 6 days later. Prompted by left leg paralys...

Lexi Czar is a 27-year-old young woman from Creston, BC, Canada. She created Lyme disease awareness apparel and is and is thinking about relaunching her brand in the future. Prior to suffering the extreme symptoms of Lyme disease, Ms. Czar was a full-time student with a part-time job and was involved in many extracurricular sports and activities. She traveled throughout British Columbia and Albert...

Åsa Rydmark is a 48-year-old woman from Sweden who has traveled all around the world. She’s worked in the medical field as a Registered Nurse (RN), research nurse at a gynecological ward, and for the last two years as a research coordinator at Linköping University. Ms. Rydmark had many tick bites throughout her life, got a bullseye rash when she was 14, and Lyme came out and wreaked havoc when she...