Friends rally to help Mother of the Year

A Whitefish mother of three whose advocacy work and community service recently earned her the Montana Mother of the Year award now needs a little support of her own.

Corinne Bludworth received the Mother of the Year title from American Mothers, a national organization that has honored mothers since 1935. The honor allows Bludworth to compete for the national title next month in Washington, D.C.

She was looking forward to making the trip, but can’t afford it because three of her immediate family members are dealing with medical problems. A group of Bludworth’s high school friends is rallying to raise $5,000 to send her, her husband and their daughter with Down syndrome to the Mother of the Year ceremony in April.

Donations can be made online at www.gofundme.com/montanasmother15 or www.gofundme.com/p61x0k.

Debra Carmichael, one of Bludworth’s good friends, said they didn’t hesitate to set up the GoFundMe page after Bludworth confided she dearly wants to attend the national Mother of the Year event.

Three weeks ago Bludworth’s daughter, Jordan, 25, who has Down syndrome, suffered a stroke. During her treatment, doctors discovered Jordan has Moyamoya disease, a disease in which arteries in the brain are constricted.

“I’d never heard of it, so I’ve been googling like a madwoman,” Bludworth said. “It’s a progressive disease and there’s no cure. Everything I’ve read says it requires surgery to reroute the blood vessels.

“On the plus side it’s not painful,” she said. “Jordan is having trouble with her right leg and right arm; that’s all she knows is wrong and we’re not going to tell her [about the Moyamoya diagnosis]. We don’t want to scare her.”

At the same time she’s been focused on Jordan’s medical issues, Bludworth has been helping her youngest son, Brandon, 20, deal with a work-related injury.

“He inhaled some toxic chemicals at work and has horrendous headaches,” she said, adding they feared he had permanent brain damage. “We went to the neurologist yesterday, and they don’t think there’s any brain damage.”

Even so, the severe headaches have all but debilitated their son, she said.

“It’s been a crappy few weeks,” Bludworth said.

And there’s more.

Bludworth’s husband, Donald, “blew out his shoulder” last November in a work accident and is still off work. To help pay the bills, she recently took on a second job cleaning at Glacier Medical Center at night. During the day she manages Remedies Day Spa.

Right now the upcoming trip to Washington, D.C., seems like a long shot.

“This is the biggest honor I’ll ever have,” she said. “But at this point it’s so far out of my league. We’re kind of struggling.”

Bludworth said she and her husband need to take Jordan with them to the event, given the severity of her recent medical problems.

A Shelby native, Bludworth has worked with severely disabled adults in the past and has been an advocate in the Down syndrome arena. She put together a Buddy Walk for Down syndrome awareness two years ago that has become an annual event in the Flathead Valley during October.

She also wants to create a local support group for parents of children with Down syndrome.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.