Rebekah Uccellini Kuby may well be one of the greatest assets Maui ever had. After attending university on Maui, she returned to the island back in 2006, living and working in the especially beautiful community of Hana.

Between 2006 and 2015 she joined Malama Mau Nui and the Maui School Garden Network and was responsible for starting 23 different school and youth gardens throughout Maui, Moloka'I, and Lanai.

Rebekah is a tireless, energetic, highly motivated, creative, self-less, and unique human being. Unfortunately Rebekah had her life undergo a huge change in January of 2015 when she was infected by the parasitic rat lungworm worm that targets the brain and central nervous system. Rebekah was infected from a slug she injested in a salad she bought at a restaurant on Maui.

Doctors did not know what was wrong with her. Finally after two and a half months of debilitating pain she was diagnosed with eosinophilic meningitis. Seeking better health care she left Hawai'i for the mainland and was placed in the care of physicians and neurologists in Portland Oregon.


It was there she slipped away into an ozone somewhere between worlds, not able to form words, her language lost, daily experiencing immense pain, seizures and tremors. All this caused by the havoc the worms created as they destroyed myelin and nerves. The intense pain in her feet was eventually replaced by numbness, and soon Rebekah was unable to move, feel her feet nor walk.

Rebekah endured two and a half years of this suffering. Today Rebekah is slowly regaining her health and vitality but has lost so much to this horrendous illness. She is in her mid-thirties and has much of her life to still live. Her life's savings are gone and she has not been able to work in the last two and a half years.

She still cannot walk without crutches, and when she walks she must take slow and thoughtful steps. The best hope for her to walk again lies in STEM cell therapy, an expensive option but one that holds the most hope for her.

The Rat Lungworm parasite destroys many parts of the brain involved with autonomic functions. Simple everyday things, like going to the bathroom become immensely challenging tasks. The loss of one's health and their life's goals from this disease is often a staggering consideration for victims to cope with.


But Rebekah seemingly is hardwired to accomplish those goals and return to functional health. She possesses the most remarkable sense of compassion and a deep loving nature for someone who has been through such a nightmare.

This past year, while confined to a wheelchair and only beginning to regain her physical functions, she traveled to Greece to offer her talent in networking - this time with non-profit organizations working with refugee camps.

To share pain with refugees was tremendously healing for Rebekah, and to do the work she so loved doing gave her new life. She traveled a few months later to Mexico to do it again, working with a small non-profit that served female victims of domestic violence.

In the short time she was there she oversaw the rebuilding of two homes - One a home for three young boys who had lost their mother and a father who worked far from home. The three boys lived mostly alone in a house with no roof, covered by only a tattered tarp and in glaring poverty.

Rebekah brought together wonderful beings from various organizations, and within a matter of days it was as if a magic wand had waved over the house and made it into a beautiful home, complete with paint, a roof, windows, and furniture. Support systems were set up for the three boys as well.

Kaye Howe was living in Indonesia when her son contracted Rat Lungworm Disease in Oahu. Her son Graham, was hospitalized at the Hilo Medical Center on December 26, 2008 with Rat Lungworm Disease.
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Dr. Susan Jarvi's lab, located at the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy at UH Hilo, currently has two main areas of investigation: avian pathogens and rat lungworm disease.
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Graham McCumber is the son of Kaye Howe and has struggled with Rat Lungworm Disease for almost a decade. He has written a book about his journey.
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