Glow for Cushing’s: Benefit Bash raising awareness for Cushing’s disease

Utah State University’s first ever Benefit Bash will be held this Friday from 7 p.m. until 11:30 p.m. in the TSC ballroom. The event description on USU’s calendar promises “an unreal amount of free glow sticks and glow-in-the-dark silicon wristbands,” as well as free t-shirts for the first 100 people to arrive. Admission is $3.

“Three bands will be playing, and they each have 45-minute sets,” said Nelda Ault, the program director for the service center. The concert will feature Westward the Tide, The Str!ke and Oh, Be Clever. Organized by nonprofit Glow for Cushing’s, the event will be raising awareness and money for Cushing’s disease.

This year’s event is the first concert Glow for Cushing’s has ever organized; in the past, Glow for Cushing’s has only organized fun runs. It’s also the first time they’ve collaborated with the USU Service Center, which has never organized concerts before either.

“We’re in uncharted water here,” said Derick Morales, a USU student who helped organize the event.

Glow for Cushing’s was started by Morales’s brother, Jordan Morales. The Morales brothers hope to raise awareness so people like their mother have a better chance of being diagnosed and cured.

“We mostly do it for her, because I know it was a really big struggle for her,” Derick Morales said. “You know something’s wrong with you, but no one really believes you; then you find out 15 years later and know, had you found it then, that you would probably be cured today.”

His mother, Kristi Hansen, was a student at USU when she began to experience symptoms of Cushing’s disease. Though she went to several doctors, they didn’t recognize or diagnose the disease. For Hansen, diagnosis came too late; 15 years later, her symptoms worsened. After online research and a long journey to a specialized hospital, Hansen was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease.

“The thing about Cushing’s is that if you find it early on, it’s about a 90 percent cure rate. So it’s really easy to cure if you find it early. Unfortunately, the longer it goes the harder it is, and with my mom, she’s at about a 10 percent cure rate now. Awareness really does make a big difference,” Morales said. “As we’ve done these fun runs, we’ve found about six people who noticed their symptoms and took the tests and were able to get diagnosed. We realized we need to keep doing this.”

— katherinetaylor@aggiemail.usu.edu