By Danielle Smith

Leader Staff Writer

A Brandon Township resident is grateful to the Oxford community for contributing to a “Shop Oxford Basket” that has quickly raised money to help fight lupus, a disease that has afflicted her and her family for generations.

In Ginger Guindon’s case, lupus has affected her brain, heart, kidneys and central nervous system, all of which can be deadly for a patient.

According to the Mayo Clinic, lupus is an autoimmune disease that manifests when a person’s immune system attacks their organs and tissues. This can result in other areas being affected, such as lungs, kidneys, brain, heart and blood cells.

Guindon was diagnosed with lupus at the age of 21 and was given 10 to 15 years to live, which she has surpassed.

“(Lupus) has never skipped a generation on my mom’s side of the family,” she said.

Once she found out that she was going to have a granddaughter, Guindon hoped that the disease would somehow pass over her, but that hope was short lived.

Earlier this year, Guindon’s 6-year-old granddaughter Savannah, started showing symptoms of lupus, right around the same age as Guindon when her body started showing signs.

Over the past several months, Savannah was assigned to a pediatric rheumatologist to monitor her levels and has had a few flare ups, especially on her face. Savannah gets what is called a “butterfly rash” named after the shape the rash normally appears. While Guindon said Savannah is in high spirits and calls lupus her “pretty” disease, because of her love of butterflies, Guindon decided that something had to be done to help ensure that her granddaughter has a chance at a better outcome.

Guindon has been an active volunteer with the Michigan Lupus Foundation for several years, helping organize walks and other events to raise money and awareness for lupus, but this time she decided to do something different: she wanted to make a basket filled with items that would draw people to Oxford.

“I had a letter that I presented to every person that I went to and I just explained the family history and said it not only benefits the Michigan Lupus Foundation but it benefits you also as bringing people to Oxford,” Guindon said.

She hoped that enough businesses would contribute gift cards or tangible items that would total $400. “Because it would only be $400, I would double it to $800 and we (would) sell slots to equal $800…then I (would) have raised $800 for the Michigan Lupus Foundation.”

When Guindon added up all of the items that businesses had donated for the basket, she was “humbly overwhelmed.”

The grand total came out to be $5,386. “I cried,” she said.

A total of 23 Oxford businesses donated items ranging from gift cards, clothing, decor and pet supplies to physical activities.

“The whole time I was putting the basket together (beneath) my granddaughter’s photo . . . I was just bawling because I was just so overwhelmed that my little town gave so much,” Guindon said.

Some businesses donated “on the spot” when Guindon visited, while others had a contribution ready “pretty much within a day or two” of her soliciting them.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

A few weeks ago, Guindon drove to the Michigan Lupus Foundation, located in Bingham Farms, to present the basket during the foundation’s weekly “Lupus Live” that is broadcast via their Facebook page.

The Shop Oxford Gift Basket has 250 slots for purchase at $20 a piece with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Michigan Lupus Foundation. Once all slots are full, a random number will be drawn and the basket and all of its contents will go to the winner. Those who are interested in purchasing a slot or viewing all of the basket’s contents can do so by visiting milupus.org and clicking on the “Shop Oxford Gift Basket” tab.

According to the Michigan Lupus Foundation website, “More people have lupus than cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis combined.”

“The only way we are going to find a cure is to keep raising money . . They need money to do research,” Guindon said.

While she has battled this disease that doesn’t have a cure for many years, Guindon won’t let it define her or Savannah.

“I don’t let (lupus) define me. I may have lupus but it doesn’t have me. And Savannah will grow up knowing the same thing: it will not define her,” Guindon said. “(She) will go and do dance class and (she) will go and do karate and (she) might have to lay on the couch the next day and take a movie break or something, but that’s ok and she has to grow up knowing that.”

After witnessing the generosity of Oxford, Guindon hopes that other lupus warriors will try and do the same thing in their own towns to show off their communities and to support lupus research.

“Everyone that put in for that basket, everyone in our town, I just want to tell them thank you from the bottom of my heart because it means so much to me that they were so giving and so willing to listen to my story,” Guindon said.