I don't usually start out my articles like this but: Hi! My name is Deanna and I'm a student working towards helping LHYS (Let's hear your story) get well known.

This is a community project in the works that involves an open platform for people to share their life struggles and how they overcame them- in order to help others possibly going through the same thing.

I'm part of a group at school that was given the opportunity to do this. We are trying to help Tony Lombardo (a man who has had Multiple Sclerosis for 37 years and has helped many people find purpose in their lives through their difficult times). He is the leader of LHYS. He also has a book that he self-published and is available on Amazon, called: "On Both Sides Of The Fence." He writes about his experience and how he overcame one of the most difficult times of his life.

Tony is a kind man who is thinking of paying it forward. He does this by sharing his story so that others going through a similar situation can no longer feel alone. Hopefully, it may even inspire the individual to push through their own tough time and or obstacle, and find that they can conquer anything life throws at them.

With that in mind, having others read something relatable and understand what they are exactly going through, helps in multitudes of ways!

LHYS is dedicated to helping others, but we need some help before that can happen.

We need people's stories! We need them to be shared at www.letshearyourstory.org

We wish for the word to be spread, in order to gain enough followers to help Tony pay it forward and to help the lives of others.

There is also an Instagram page @lhys_lets_hear_your_story

I offer my greatest thanks!

If you're still interested, below is a short snippet of Tony's book:

"Anger filled my thoughts as, little by little, my body could not meet my expectations. The day-to-day commands taught since birth (walk, run, sit, stand) suddenly required an effort, where they had once been coordinated into a finely tuned machine. G-O-N-E.

Why?

I needed to blame someone, anyone; and this need to hold someone accountable required me to focus on the deepest levels of trust and faith. I had a lack of trust in the medical profession, specifically, in the ability of anyone to help me. I argued deep within myself well into the night, many nights, desperately trying to make peace where war had been declared inside. I traveled in and out of periods when the worst seemed to pass, only to return to the same exact point as before.

I found myself:

IN AND OUT of hospitals where doctors offered partial solutions to problems they could not possibly understand from my perspective.

IN AND OUT of emotional tirades that screamed for life to go back to the way it was.

IN AND OUT of bitter turmoil; lashing out at anyone who was able to do what I had once been able to do.

Simple tasks became more and more monumental. I had to come to terms with a realization that the journey toward acceptance would never be completely achieved. The desire deep within me, which I wanted to realize, was to run as far away from myself as I could possibly get. The harsh lesson I eventually learned is that no one can run away from himself."