Boynton mother runs to help find a cure for Crohn's

For more than half a million people living with inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn's disease and colitis, is a fact of life. More than 96,000 of them are Floridians, according to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America.

The disease runs in families and is more common among those of Jewish descent.

Men and women are equally affected, and most people are diagnosed in their mid-30s. The disease can occur at any age and older men are more likely to be diagnosed than older women.

Amy Krostich, 38, a pediatric nurse practitioner from Boynton Beach, knows this firsthand.

"Four of my five siblings have one or another form of the disease and my husband, Seth, a web developer also suffers from the disease," she said.

She is busy training for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation's Team Challenge Half Marathon on Sunday in West Palm Beach.

She plans to run the race with her sister, Rachel Fetterman, 32, of Coconut Creek, who suffers from ulcerative colitis.

"I am running right now not to just cross that 13.1-mile finish line," Krostich said on her Team Challenge page, "I am running for so much more."

"I am running to remind myself that I can run; to remind myself that there are so many more that can't run. I am running to raise funds for a cure for Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis for myself and for my family and the 1.4 million Americans with IBD," she said.

Not surprisingly, Krostich's three children, Adam, 11, a sixth-grader at Christa McAuliffe Middle School; Julia, 9, a fourth-grader at Ben Gamla Charter School; and Max, 6, a first-grader at the same school are all affected by the disease.

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Boynton mother runs to help find a cure for Crohn's