Dorette Scott being greeted last week by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller at the Women's Leadership Initiative/United Way, Miami Dade, Hearts and Hands Together luncheon where she was special guest. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

THE RESPONSE to Outlook's story on Dorette Scott, the scleroderma patient featured on Sunday, June 11, was overwhelming. The calls and emails came pouring in. Many, such as retired principal of Bethlehem Teachers' Collge, Lucinda Peart, who lost her daughter Karen to the disease 12 years ago, admires Scotts 'never say die' outlook. Peart said:

"(The) article made me relive Karen's affliction all over. One good thing, though, it also helped me to have something more recorded about the disease from the victim's point of view. A similar spirit of resilience possessed Karen, no doubt because of her similarly-deep Christian commitment."

Ms. Scott was invited last week to a luncheon of the Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI) at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, where she was placed at the head table with the WLI executive, the Gleaner company's Oliver Clarke and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller who was guest speaker at the event.

Pat Ramsay, chairwoman of the WLI, told Outlook, "You could feel her strength and dignity coming through."

Scott has been diagnosed with scleroderma, one of a group of arthritic conditions called connective tissue disorders. In these disorders, a person's antibodies are directed against his or her own tissues. It is said to be a rare, progressive disease that leads to hardening and tightening of the skin and connective tissues ­ the fibres that provide the framework and support for the body.

Tough-as-nails in her assessment of the disease, Scott told Outlook, "It tightens the skin and dries out the tissues. It tightens the oesophagus too. I can't keep anything down. There is also loss of pigmentation and severe malnutrition." Dorette Scott explains that it takes her one hour to eat one saucer full of food and invariably she vomits.

Dorette's condition has progressed to the point where she can do nothing for herself and needs to have someone with her 24 hours a day. Her mainstay is her 15-year-old daughter Jenielle, the youngest of her four children, who attends St. Andrew High School For Girls in St. Andrew.

At the WLI luncheon, Pat Ramsay said that Prime Minister Simpson Miller, at first unaware of Ms. Scott's presence, mentioned her story in her preamble.

"I know our group will be helping her," Ramsay said.

"As a woman's group we must be sensitive to issues affecting women and children."

The fund-raising luncheon, she said, was the largest they ever had.

­ Outlook Team