Community rallies around Maine South grad with chronic fatigue syndrome

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Claire Sharkey (left), 28, a 2001 graduate of Maine South High School, was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome in 2008. | Contributed photo

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Updated: September 13, 2011 7:47PM

Claire Sharkey, 28, a 2001 graduate of Maine South High School, was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome in 2008.

In June 2008, while spending a year in Ireland, her health broke down. She woke up one morning, unable to move. Her immune system shut down. After numerous tests, Sharkey found out her body was filled with toxic fluid and she was eventually diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Sharkey taught seventh and eighth grade in Wilmette, hoping to save money to go to Ireland for a year. She was homecoming queen during her senior year. She played soccer for the Hawks during all of her four years at Maine South and graduated from DePaul University in 2005 with a degree in Education.

Sharkey’s friends held a fundraiser June 24 at the Snuggery Pub in Edison Park to raise money for her costly treatments, which are not covered by insurance. More than 75 people attended the event and many more made donations to the cause through PayPal.

Michelle Elfvin, Sharkey’s college roommate and teammate on DePaul University’s soccer team, said she decided to start the “Curing Claire” foundation as a way to help her friend.

“I want her back in my life,” she said.

In college, Sharkey’s friends used to call her “sparkplug,” according to Elfvin.

“Everyone wanted to be around her. Her personality was contagious,” she said. “Claire’s a special girl.”

Speaking about her condition, Sharkey said: “I look fine (but) it feels like I’ve been injected with poison and clubbed over the head. The pressure in my head is usually unbearable.”

Still, Sharkey said she’s regaining her energy and having more good days now than bad ones. The treatment has allowed her to make progress.

“At first I couldn’t get out of bed,” she said. “Now I’m up and about.”

Every week Sharkey has craniosacral therapy to relieve the pressure around her brain and allow the fluid to drain, which takes about an hour and a half. Every two weeks she must receive a manual lymphatic drainage massage to drain the toxins from her lymphatic system and organs.

Sharkey said it’s a mysterious illness but her friends “have been amazing throughout this whole (experience). I couldn’t have done this without them.”

The buildup of toxic fluid in her head and body resulted from numerous head, neck and back injuries from soccer, Sharkey said. Her lower spine didn’t develop properly and the misalignment prevented the toxic fluid from draining.

“It was my dream to play college soccer and I don’t regret it, but it was a major contributor (to her condition)” Sharkey said.

Elfvin said Sharkey’s condition is hard on her friends because if it was “any other illness, you take your friend soup” and you keep them company. But Claire’s condition makes it so that even “a conversation is so stimulating for her brain it puts her body into overdrive.”

Elfvin and her husband came up with the idea to start “Curing Claire,” a foundation to help raise awareness. June’s was the second fundraiser for the foundation and Elfvin said she hopes to make it a biannual event, with one event in the winter and one in the summer. She was in charge of a January event in Lincoln Park.

Katie Schroeder, who organized the summer fundraiser, played on the Park Ridge traveling soccer team — the Sharks — with Sharkey during elementary school.

“Claire’s been such a great friend,” Schroeder said. “She’s such a fun, nice, lighthearted person ... . The more fundraisers we have, the more she knows she’s supported.”

Sharkey’s grade-school friend, Sandra Calenda, and high-school friend Molly O’Keefe also helped Schroeder with the fundraiser, Sharkey said.

Schroeder, who was also Sharkey’s teammate at Maine South, said the event raised about $7,000. About $5,000 came from the auction, $1,000 from the raffle and more than $1,000 was donated online through PayPal.

People she hadn’t spoken to in years, old classmates from elementary school and “people whose lives have been touched by Claire somehow” showed their support, Elfvin said.

“We appreciate everyone’s support,” Elfvin said. “The community has been very generous.”

It’s a small foundation that will help one girl, now, but in the future could help change the world, Elfvin said.

To donate to “Curing Claire” or find more information about chronic fatigue syndrome, go to www.curingclaire.com or the “Curing Claire” page on Facebook.

Elfvin encourages Facebook-page visitors to write notes to Sharkey, get updates on her health and ask her questions.