This is one of a series of stories about the nonprofit agencies that receive money from The Gazette/El Pomar Foundation Empty Stocking Fund campaign that runs through the holidays.

In her early 20s, Lesia Wortham loved her Red Cross shelter supervisor job so much that when she became exhausted and slurred her words, she ignored it, thinking she was merely working too hard.

But when she couldn’t lift her head and her arm hung heavy at her side, she went to the emergency room. Thus began four months in the hospital, where she finally was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease in which communications between nerves and muscles break down.

It would be decades of illness and starts and stops before she could create another career with purpose. REACH Pikes Peak made it happen. The nonprofit offers a variety of social services, from basic living to education to job and education assistance.

After that first medical episode, Wortham needed constant care and was confined to a wheelchair. But she persevered and, later as a single woman, was able to raise her granddaughter. “When I had bouts of sickness, friends stepped in to help,” she said.

Wortham has a sociology degree, but illness kept her from finishing a master’s degree or working beyond temporary jobs.

Now 50, her illness has stabilized with the help of medication. She does not need a wheelchair and can talk normally.

A couple of years ago, she helped a counselor lead an addiction class and was struck by the high incidence in Colorado.

“There are so many families in need of help,” she said. “It opened me up to possibilities because I was good at it. I was able to get people to see what they needed to see.”

The approximately 18 months of classes for advanced training in that field were beyond her means. But she received matching financial assistance from REACH Pikes Peak to attend the Colorado School for Family Therapy in Colorado Springs.

She also has received help from REACH Pikes Peak with utilities. And when her disability check was stolen, the agency stepped forward to assist financially.

Just as important, she said, “they gave me emotional support, too.”

She now co-facilitates classes for agencies in addiction counseling, anger and behavior management, and Moral Reconation Therapy, a treatment program designed to decrease recidivism among youth and adult offenders. Her next step is to create her own addiction treatment center.

“I couldn’t have done this without REACH. I’m so thankful,” Wortham said.