Local event this Saturday supports that cause
by Lissa Blake
Although 12-year-old Ashlyn Henkes is doing well now, the past three years have been a roller coaster ride of testing and treatments to keep her free of pain.
That’s because Henkes has polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, a genetic disease that affects 300,000 children in the United States.
Ashlyn is the daughter of Dustin Henkes of Monona and Esley Henkes of Lansing. She attends New Albin Elementary School and has one brother, Owen, age 16, and one sister, Isla, age nine.
Her problems started about three years ago, when her neck started to hurt. “I was to the point where I couldn’t move it to look around. Even looking up and down hurt. My fingers hurt to write,” said Ashlyn.