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Three years ago, Mitchell Widom's daughter Taylor was diagnosed with Crohn's disease -- a chronic disorder that causes inflammation of the digestive or gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms can include cramps, fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss and bowel problems. Researchers don't know what causes it, and there's no cure. The treatment can include a slew of medications, including steroids.
"It's a disease that not very many people talk about because of the type of disease it is and how it affects you," says Widom, a Miami trial attorney with Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod.
Since the diagnosis, Widom has turned his energies toward raising money for Crohn's research. First, he created a fishing event held each May in Islamorada. Then, he went statewide with what he calls the Law Firm Challenge, asking attorneys at firms across Florida to financially support the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America.
In 2005, the first year of his effort, Widom raised $152,000. Last year, the challenge and the tournament together raised $352,000, making it the biggest Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America fund-raiser in Florida. So far this year, 202 law firms are participating, up from 128 last year.
One participant is Eric Ludin of Tucker & Ludin in Clearwater, whose son, Jacob, also has Crohn's. Ludin agreed to organize the Law Firm Challenge along Florida's west coast. Widom, he says, is "bringing lawyers together, but not through a Bar association or any other organization. It's mainly his doing."
Meanwhile, Taylor Widom, now 13, "takes about 11 pills a day, but she has been doing very, very well," says Widom. Ludin says Jacob, 15, is also doing well -- "a happy kid who is learning to deal with his situation."
Business Beat - Week of May 3rd
