1st Annual Friends For Nate Golf Tournament
Presented by Paul Davis Restoration of the Carolina Coast
(All proceeds go to the Friends for Nate Trust)
Nate Cooper, a former Wilmington business owner, has been battling Lyme Disease for several years. In 2006 Nate was bitten by a tick while he was visiting Lyme, Connecticut. Though a couple of years passed with little or no signs of illness, in 2009 Nate got very sick. It started with flu-like symptoms, nausea, fatigue, body aches, and insomnia. Despite seeing over a dozen specialists and exhausting his financial resources, his doctors could not determine the cause of his illness.
Like many Lyme patients, initial diagnoses were consistently depression and anxiety related. This struggle persisted for years with varying degrees of intensity. In 2010, the symptoms worsened and extended to include severe pain in his joints and muscles, as well as neurological symptoms including memory loss, involuntary muscle contractions/twitches, and blurred/distorted vision. We now know this meant that the organisms had penetrated Nate's blood-brain barrier and were now effecting his brain activity.
In 2011, after years of research, Nate finally found a doctor that diagnosed him with Lyme Disease. The aggressive treatment for chronic Lyme Disease as advanced as Nate's includes IV antibiotics, and most doctors will not proceed with adequate treatment because they can have their license revoked for prescribing long term IV antibiotics. Because of Nate's symptoms he has been unable to work consistently for nearly three years, and the IV antibiotics are extremely expensive. Friends For Nate is a trust that has been established to help offset some of these medical expenses.