Diann Shaddox Foundation raising awareness about essential tremor and money for research Aiken Standard

STAFF PHOTO BY DEDE BILES Diann Shaddox and Randy Miles, founded the Diann Shaddox Foundation to raise awareness of essential tremor, a nervous system disorder, and to raise money to fund research.

Diann Shaddox Foundation raising awareness about essential tremor and money for research Aiken Standard
by Dede Biles of the Aiken Standard
Oct 23 2014 8:13 pm  


 Diann Shaddox and  Randy Miles, founded the Diann Shaddox Foundation to raise awareness of essential tremor, a nervous system disorder, and to raise money to fund research.

Many people never have heard of essential tremor, a nervous system disorder that causes rhythmic shaking. A lot of doctors don’t know much about it, either.

Aiken resident Diann Shaddox and Randy Miles want to change that. They also want to raise money to fund research to find a cure or discover better ways to treat the disease, which also is known as ET.
                                                    

---

Earlier this year, Shaddox and Miles created the Diann Shaddox Foundation. It recently received approval for a 501(c)(3) tax exemption.

Shaddox is the president of the foundation, and Miles is the executive director and chairman of the trustees.

To increase awareness, the Shaddox Foundation is distributing brochures with information about ET and two other neurological movement disorders: Parkinson’s disease and dystonia.

In the area of research, Shaddox and Miles want provide grants to scientists who are willing to combine their efforts and share information.

“Most of the research done on these three disorders is separate, but I believe there is a link between them,” Miles said.

Shaddox is an ET sufferer, so she is very familiar with the frustration its victims experience.

“You’ve got to find a pretty specialized neurologist to get it diagnosed,” Shaddox said. “I’ve heard stories about people who go to the emergency room because they are having a heart attack or something, and the doctors and nurses are more worried about the fact that they are shaking.”

Sometimes policemen and other first responders think that essential tremor sufferers are drug users or abusers.

“Essential tremor disorder is the most common movement disorder, and hardly anybody knows about it,” Miles said.

---

Shaddox wrote a romance novel, “A Faded Cottage,” which was published last year. Its protagonist, artist Quaid Witherspoon, develops ET and has trouble painting.

Witherspoon moves from New York to the South Carolina coast, where his family vacationed when he was younger. He buys a cottage, reunites with a love interest from the past and learns how to deal with ET.

Shaddox has another published novel, “Whispering Fog,” which is a time-travel romance.

“It doesn’t have anything in it about essential tremor,” she said.

All proceeds from both books are being donated to the Shaddox Foundation, and she plans to complete at least 16 others and get them published.

Shaddox and Miles travel to various festivals, where they spread the word about the foundation and ET while selling books and T-shirts that promote the organization.

The 2015 Folly Beach Wine & Sign, scheduled for April 25, will benefit the Shaddox Foundation. The event will be held at the Edwin S. Taylor Folly Beach Pier Folly Beach, SC and will feature Lowcountry authors and artists.

For more information about the Shaddox Foundation visit www.diannshaddoxfoundation.org.

Dede Biles is a general assignment reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since January 2013. A native of Concord, N.C., she is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

---