Benefit set to help Dess deal with costs of rare illness

A mother of six children from Havre who has spent much of her time helping others is in need of help as she battles a rare disease that has left her unable to walk.

A benefit dinner will be held Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Eagle's Club in Havre for Candace Dess.

Dess, 35, is vice president of the Eagles Woman's Auxiliary, where she would put together gift baskets for and help organize benefits, fundraisers and other community activities.

Dess suffers from Guillain-Barré Syndrome. The Facebook page advertising the dinner said Guillain-Barré Syndrome is a rare disorder in which the body's immune systems attacks its nerves.

Weakness and tingling within a person's extremities are typically the first symptoms. Sensations can then spread quickly and eventually lead to paralysis.

Dess said the condition is so rare that she didn't know about it before she was diagnosed.

"Literally, when I got diagnosed, I was in the ICU googling it," she said.

Dess said money from the benefit will go toward helping cover the cost of additional in-home care. She said her health insurance now will only pay for 13.25 hours a week of in-home care, and how to cover the cost of additional care has stressed her out and strained her savings.

"It's wiped me out completely," she said.

Dess said the first signs of her condition became apparent Dec. 17 when her legs began to ache and her feet started to feel numb, while she was helping clean up after the children's community Christmas party at the Eagles.

The pain forced her to sit down, while others cleaned up. Later that night, she had difficulty walking out to her car to go home.

The next day she could barely walk, and at one point had to crawl up her stairs.

Dess said her mother then took her to Northern Montana Hospital, where she had an MRI and several other tests done and the diagnosis was made.

She ended up spending several days at Northern Montana and then later Benefis medical center in Great Falls, before coming home in a wheelchair.

Dess said the experience has limited her movement and made her unable to walk to the bathroom by herself. Her condition has also made it harder to take care of her children, especially her two one-year-olds, who she can only hold for short periods of time.

"It has definitely been life changing," she said.

Brian Carpenter, a friend of Dess and organizer of the Feb. 17 benefit, said Swiss steak will be served for $10 a plate, and children younger than 5 eat for free. The dinner will also include a table of deserts, silent auction and live music by the band Liquor Down.

The silent auction will start at 4 p.m. and dinner at 5 p.m.

Items for the silent auction that have been donated so far, Carpenter said, include a year's worth of free pizza from Pizza Hut, a one-month free membership to Physical Therapy Down Under Fitness Center in Havre and a quilt donated by R-New Trading Post.

People who wish to donate items for the auction can drop them off with Havre Eagles Club Manager Tom Farnham at the club or call Carpenter at 399-0632.

Monetary donations can also be made by to Dess through her GoFundMe account at https://www.gofundme.com/lets-support-candace-and-her-famil. A benefits account has also been set up at Bear Paw Credit Union to which people can donate.