Brighton Teacher Raises Awareness for Pulmonary Hypertension

Teacher Cheryl Wegener doesn’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo on May 5th anymore. Instead she focuses on May 5th’s alternate recognition: Pulmonary Hypertension Day.

As a Brighton High School teacher newly moved to Dallas in 2011, Wegener, alongside her husband, Rob, soon learned that their 5 year old daughter Madison was one in a million, born with a rare disease known as Pulmonary Hypertension. Pulmonary Hypertension, otherwise known as PH, is a very rare condition in which World PH Day explains as a life-changing disease where an increase in high blood pressure could potentially cause heart failure.

With this information at hand, finding a doctor, or any form of medical care for a disease such as this was hard to say the least. But when they found out about the medical program at U of M, a state in which they had just moved away from,“[We] knew it was our fate to move back,” Wegener said.

But a move such as this might have been the best thing that has come for Madison. Back teaching at BHS, Wegener explained to her multiple English classes about the walk/run she’d be participating on Saturday, May 9th in Dewitt, MI. to support her daughter to aid in the search for a cure: “DeWitt Take a Breath for PH and Get Moving for MS”. Multiple students offered their support.

With the help of Sean Carney, Brighton High Schools’ graphic department teacher, and some of his students, t-shirts were designed and available for purchase to help raise money and awareness. A more than anticipated amount of students happily purchased and supported their beloved teacher.

“We printed at least a hundred purple shirts,” senior Will Shaffran said.

May 5th marked a new day, not only did students of BHS diversify their understanding to a complex matter many of them knew little to no information about, but they also represented how loving and caring Brighton can be by sporting their purple shirts in honor of Madison and their teacher.

The thing is, awareness for the disease doesn’t have to be limited to a single day. What if awareness was spread outside the walls of Brighton and information could be more easily shared with others who can make a difference with it? Just by participating in the walk in Greater Detroit, one can become part of the difference. Standing beside the Wegeners are a diverse pool of BHS students who believe in the change.

The Dewitt event was just one event starting to raise awareness.

“For a bunch of non-runners, we did better than expected. I was happy with the turnout and look to come back next year with even more people,” Wegener said.

Look for other events or support research for PH at www.O2breathe.org.