Donna Whittaker was diagnosed with juvenile onset autoimmune myasthenia gravis as a ten-year-old farm girl. She did not meet another person with myasthenia gravis until she was thirty years old.
While living in Kansas City, she helped the Kansas City Myasthenia Gravis Foundation plan and host support group meetings for MG patients. When she moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, she restarted the MG support group at the Joyce Raye Patterson Senior Citizen's Center.
In 1995, she became the daytime moderator of the myasthenia gravis chat room for the Prodigy Online Service. Stan Way and Donna became the Prodigy MG Team hosting chats and developing myasthenia gravis websites.
In 1997, at the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach, Donna met with her online myasthenic friends to start MGnet, an Internet Chapter of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America. The primary purpose of MGnet is to be available to myasthenics all around the world so no one has to suffer alone.
Donna has led a full life. She married in 1972 and gave birth to a daughter in 1977. She has a BA and an MA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is an active volunteer in many organizations including the Board of Directors of MERIL, an independent living center. She is currently pursuing her CTM in the St. Joseph Toastmasters Club. She is presently employed part-time as an adult education instructor.
Her family's goal is that those around each myasthenic will understand myasthenia gravis so no myasthenic will suffer alone.
MGnet