May is Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month.
Founders of Sashbear Foundation Lynn Courey and Mike Menu are raising awareness and funds with a web-walk in rememberance of their daughter Sasha.
Sasha lost her battle with BPD at age 20 by suicide. Courey described the disorder, "It's a complex mental health problem, because people with Borderline Personality Disorder have difficulty regulating or handling their emotions and have difficulty controlling the impulses that come with it."
Her parents now working to ensure others with symptoms are getting treatment early.
"I always think of Sasha when she did her first suicide attempt when she was 16. Imagine if she was diagnosed with BPD and she would've had access to the treatment," Courey said.
"And we would have had family skills to be able to more effectively communicate as a family," Menu added. "That would have been a game changer for sure."
Over $69,000 has been raised so far this year.
"The original purpose was just for awareness because people didn't know anything about it. It turns out, on the very first walk we noticed that the kids, the ones who have BPD or similar issues were so touched by all these people walking for them, for their benefit, for their cause."
Learn more about BPD and the web-walk at Sashbear.org.