Case Study #32 - Darin Providing Technical Support

Darin Providing Technical Support. 30" x 24" Oil on canvas

Darin Donahue lives in southeast Michigan and works as a freelance broadcast technician. He does a lot of work for the local PBS station along with working a lot of sporting events for various sports networks. His favorite being the Lions / Bears rivalry game. When Darin was born, he had a number of  café-au-lait-spots. His mother always said they were "the doctors thumb prints,” but he wasn’t officially diagnosed with NF1 until he was about 13. No one else in his family had it, so it was caused by a spontaneous mutation, as half of the NF cases are caused by that.

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School was a constant struggle for Darin. Having dyslexia made math and reading problematic and something he avoided at all cost. He struggles with diminished concentration and a very poor memory, and has balance issues.  It wasn’t until about twelve years ago that he noticed his skin tumors increasing but waited a few years to seek out an NF specialist to have them checked out. Truthfully, he really didn’t think much about it as he was leading a relatively normal life, until his oldest brother inquired into why did he have all the skin issues and tumors. His brother is about eight years older than Darin but had no idea that his youngest brother had NF or even what having NF meant. Even though Darin was seeing a top specialist in the area, his brother was convinced he wasn't doing enough to learn about it. At that point, Darin became actively involved with the NF community, and started going to NF sponsored events, seminars, focus groups and NF walks. In 2015 & 2016 Darin participated in the Cupids Undie Run in Detroit raising $600 and has already signed up to run again in 2017.