KOZAK GAVE ME A NEW LEASE ON LIFE
Four months after starting her treatment with Pavel Kozak in West Germany for the skin disorder epidermolysis bullosa, Judy Preston expresses her sentiments with this GLARNI PHOTS sweat shirt at her home in Angus. A strict diet and treatment with lotions is helping Judy make strong progress.
Judy gains weight, becomes celebrity
By PAUL SCHLIESMANN
Of The Examiner
Life has settled back to normal for Judy Preston, the year-old Angus woman who went to West Germany in January for treatment of her skin disorder
Well, not quite back to normal. She has gained 12 lbs. and is ridding her body of the blistering sores that have plagued her body since birth. That used to be normal.
But her health is a delicate thing and she takes no chances with it. Straying from her strict diet or letting up on the vital medication would nullify all the good done with the help of biochemist Pavel Kozak. Kozak’s clinic in West Germany has become the mecca for sufferers of rare skin diseases such as the epidermolysis bullosa Judy has. Preston has returned with various medicated creams that are applied to her body four times daily. It’s messy but necessary.
Her diet is hardly inviting. There are complete or partial restrictions on salt, sugar, tap water, frozen foods and much more. “There’s not all that much to it,” she said, but that is 100% necessary.
Preston is also becoming a bit of a celebrity around Angus. One day, she said, a neighbor’s child brought over two friends to see her. People by just stop to say hello.
She is helping the Angus Lions in their efforts to raise more money for her medical costs by donating her embroidery works and making signs.
The Lions club, which HBS raised more than $41,000 so far, is continuing to ask for support from all the other Lions clubs in their district, the veterans and service clubs, the military community at Base Borden, and the many businesses and individuals who have been generous in the drive.
THINGS ARE LOOKING BETTER.
Things are looking better for Judy and her mother, Phyllis, but they are disappointed with news that Kozak will not set up permanently in Canada.
Phyllis Preston says the facilities at the West German clinic are not as good as what could be offered in Canada: “If he could get to Canada, it would be much better,” she said. “They haven’t got the facilities to handle them.”
Still, Judy Preston is well on her way to a recovery she once never thought possible.