Technology Slice Blog

Jennifer Hopkins Myasthenia Gravis - Jennifer Hopkins is training for her second Ironman triathlon, intending to repeat her feat of finishing the challenging three-part course in 2009. Completing a 3.86-kilometre swim, a 180.25-km bicycle ride and a 42.19-km run that year -- in that order and without a break -- is a major accomplishment for any athlete. It was a much greater challenge for the 31-year-old Ottawa resident, a foreign service officer and lawyer with the federal government who has multiple sclerosis and two other autoimmune diseases. “I had always wanted to do the Ironman and said that I would do it when I was healthier,” says Hopkins, who was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease, as a teenager and warned she was unlikely to be able to continue participating in most sports. Jennifer Hopkins Myasthenia Gravis Because this condition resulted in her having symptoms similar to some symptoms of MS, it wasn’t until 2007, when she w...