A 16-year-old Greenville girl stricken with mitochondrial disease, who publicly shared her story of hope and persistence, lost her battle against the incurable ailment Wednesday morning.
Corynna Strawser learned her diagnosis about a year ago. There is no cure for the genetic disease that results from failures of the specialized compartments in nearly every cell in the body.
"Mitochondrial disease kills a lot of kids, but nobody knows about it, and I have a huge problem with that," she told the Dayton Daily News in a story she shared with readers on Thanksgiving Day. "There's so little funding. There is so little testing and so little treatment, and it needs it so bad."
Greenville residents came together this year to donate time and tools to build a bedroom for Corynna on the first floor of the Strawser home. The project was estimated to have cost $25,000.
In November, she made a video for everyone to watch after she was gone.
"I wanted to create the video for my parents and friends to see and go back to occasionally to remember me," she said.
Visitation will be 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at Zechar Bailey Funeral Home, 1499 N. Broadway, Greenville. The funeral is 2 p.m. Monday at the funeral home.
