Tomasita Gallegos

I m hoping our progress in Santa Fe will inspire others to not feel helpless, and to make changes in other communities. 

We are using our illness as a way to enhance our lives by offering something important to the world. We can all use this nightmare as a way to serve others. 

Born and raised in Santa Fe, Tomasita Gallegos has lived and worked in the same community all her life. Work was a source of great pride to her and she always enjoyed good health, until she was exposed to an unidentified toxin in her workplace at age thirty-three. Now she relies on her faith in God, her family, the compassion of her former employer, and disability income to survive. She rarely leaves her house. 

Like many people with MCS, Tomasita s emotions are affected by chemical exposures. Still recovering from a recent exposure when I interviewed her, she was feeling emotionally fragile but welcomed me into her home on short notice. In a soft voice she told to me her story, unable at times to hold back her tears. 

Without the compassionate, ethical support of her former employer, Tomasita s life would be dramatically different. Sadly, for every person like Tomasita there are many more whose employers deny the reality of MCS, leaving disabled workers without a source of income for adequate food, housing or medical care. 

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Front cover (clockwise from top) Carolyn Martin, Roy Bolbery, Tomasita Gallegos, Susan Molloy, John Pruitt, and Nicholas Weiss. 

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