affected normal

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Cia

normal
children

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affected
children

Dominant Inheritance

The conditions | refer to
are gathered toqether under
the group name of myotonias.
People with these conditions
often confuse them with
true muscular dystrophy.

Congenital myotonia starts
in infancy and usually
effects the entire muscular
system at some staqe of
development in: one form or
another. There is no dys~
trophic change in the muscle
mass, that is, there is no
muscle deterioration with
this disease. A child with
this condition has an ex-
cellent chance of leading
an entirely normal life.
for genetic counsellina,
this depends on the particu-
lar case; however, there is
a 4 chance that the child-
ren of an affected individ-
ual may have a similar con-
dition.

As

Steinert's disease, or
myotonic dystrophy, has its
onset in adolescence or
early adult life. The pat-
ient exhibits a progressive
weakness of the peripheral
muscles of the limbs, neck
and face. Frontal baldness
and cataracts usually accom-
pany these symptoms. Since
this is a dominant trait,
an affected person has a 4
chance that each of his
children are qoing to devel-
op this condition. Vork is
being done to discover which
children are qoina to develop
this condition so that they
may be helped in plannina
their futures, When these
people ask for advise, it is

usually suqaested that they
avoid having larae families
and that they think about
adopting a family instead,
The diagnosis as to which
type of muscular dystrophy
is in a family can best be
arrived at following an
examination of the patient
by several persons with
varied professional skills.
From their opinions a dia-
anosis is aqreed upon and
counselling is done accord-
inaly. Because there is no
cure at the present time,
though no doubt one will be
found in the not too distant
future, my personal feelina
is that ''an ounce of pre-
vention is worth a pound of
cure'', and that qenetic coun-
selling and correct diaaqnosis
appear to be the oniy way to
control these myopathies.

Dantel L. Keene

st.
7.

FAREWELL TO.......

Rev. David E. Reuss and
Mrs. Reuss who resided in
Cassiar for 24 years. David

was our reverand at All
Saints Community Anglican
Church and instructed classes
at the Training Centre as
well.

The Reuss family have moved
to Rossland, B.C. where the
scenery is not too different
from Cassiar but - a quote
from David, "I will mss the
people of Cassiar and the
sense of excttement that
goes with the frontier. You
wtll always be weleome at
our new home and I am sure
that I will not be able to
stay away from the Yukon
vieintty for veru tong".

Good luck to you David and
your family from all of
Cassiar.

*

17

NEWS AT SCHOOL

Cassiar's Junior Secondary
students have their own qov-
ernment this year! This is
the first time in Cassiar
history that the school has
beaqun a students! Council.
The week of Sept. 25th. was
an exciting and nervous one
for candidates who were in
the last stages of a very
spirited campaian. The speech
day proved that our schooi
has a qood number of eloquent
buddina politicians! Election
day was almost too much for
some of the candidates'
nerves as the arades 7, 8,

9 and 10 students went to

the polls. In ten minutes
every sinale eliaible voter
cast his ballot aivina us a
record for the highest elect~
ion turnout ever in Canada -
100%!

The election results, which
were extremely close were:
Paul Caron - President
Chris Gleason - Vice-Pres,
Gudrun Maxson - Secretary
Sandra Cook - Treasurer

“ith the camnpatan business
over, President Caron called
the first meetina of al]
Executive Council members
and moved that each class
Grades 7,8,9 and 10 have a
class representative elected
to represent their respect-
ive classes at all council
meetinas.

in

Elected were:

Peter Kliment - Gr. 7
Ralf Voss - Gr. 8
Marie Borsato - Gr. 9
Curtis Flanagan - Gr, 10

A stuffed Polar bear, tem-
porarily christened 'Rooaa-
Booqal' was elected by acc-

acclamation as school mascot,