Andy Tomasic was 20 years old when he climbed out of bed one morning and collapsed. The son of a former Major League Baseball and NFL player Andrew Tomasic Sr., Andy had always been healthy and active in sports, so the sudden weakness in his legs was baffling. “I just dropped to the floor,” he says. “I knew something was very wrong.” Andy was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system. Andy was able to manage his disease well. Although he walked with a cane, he says his symptoms remained “pretty much in the background,” which allowed him to go on with his life working for a local cement company and later rebuilding diesel engines. Then, about eight years ago, he fell and shattered his hip bone. “For whatever reason, it wasn’t repairing well,” he says. “They did a hip replacement and that’s what put me in the (wheel) chair.” No two people experience MS exactly the same way. But for Andy, who lives in Allentown, and 30 others who
Andy Tomasic
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