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OCTOBER 2020 | 4 MIN READ

Vanetta Drummer-Fenton

“I may be weak, but I’m strong.” Vanetta Drummer-Fenton started using the phrase as a code among her close-knit family to let them know how her symptoms were each day. But now, it’s become a personal mantra to help her deal with MG.

A popular honor student and step team captain, Vanetta was a classic high school overachiever with energy to spare. Then myasthenia gravis dramatically changed the script on her. Since her diagnosis, her close-knit extended family has given Vanetta the support she’s needed to pursue her unique career as a personal trainer to people with chronic illnesses. And as the mother of a young daughter, Vanetta gained new perspective on a devastating experience she witnessed her mother go through years earlier: the moment Vanetta’s doctors admitted, “We don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

Vanetta’s film from A Mystery to Me has been accepted into the 56th Chicago International Film Festival. It will be screened in the Documentary Short Film Competition.

Her film will be competing against some of the best nonfiction work from around the globe for the Gold Hugo for Best Documentary Short at the festival.

"I may be weak, but I’m strong."

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