By The Clanton Advertiser staff

Disease has the ability to forever alter one’s life. It can separate us from loved ones. 

Disease can also cut one’s life short without ever taking a life. 

This happened to Chris Gaines, 34, of Jemison, who suffers from Batten Disease, a rare disorder of the nervous system.

Chris has suffered from worsening symptoms since age 3. The symptoms are mental impairment, worsening seizures, and progressive loss of motor skills.

Batten Disease is not as well known as other life-threatening diseases such as cancer, mostly because it is so rare. But there is no known cure, which has prompted Gaines’ mother, Becky Lucas, to hold an annual fundraiser to raise money toward research and awareness.

Lucas helps organize an annual golf tournament to help raise money for medical research and awareness of Batten Disease.

The eighth annual tournament is Saturday, Sept. 19 at Lakeview Retreat in Bibb County. The format is two-man scramble, and tee time begins promptly at 8 a.m.

For more information, call Lucas at (205) 668-0812 or (205) 296-6625, or Tony Cochran at (334) 366-4018.