When Life Takes, White Plains Resident Amy Fitzgerald Gives

No matter what life throws at Amy Fitzgerald—whether it’s living with lupus, being laid off from her job of 13 years, or breaking her foot before a major marathon—she pushes harder to help others.

Though she has been battling the chronic autoimmue disease for the last 15 years—which has hospitalized her on several occasions and causes her painful arthritis, fevers and swelling—the 38-year-old White Plains resident always has her hand in one type of charitable cause or another.

“I think by doing all the volunteering and helping out helps me to deal with my situation best,” said Fitzgerald, who lives on Bryant Avenue.

She regularly finds herself volunteering for Pets Alive Westchester, spending time playing with dogs or cats and posting the animals for adoption on her Facebook page hoping a friend could find it a home. When she isn’t advocating for animals, she’s training for marathons and raising funds for lupus, cystic fibrosis, diabetes and other causes.

“Everything she does has the potential to affect her immune system and she does it anyway,” said Vanessa Taback of White Plains. “And I think that’s inspiring.”

Taback —who has known Fitzgerald since they attended Mahopac Middle School—says her best friend is responsible for her owning two adopted cats, as well as bringing in the most dress donations for a summer camp prom night Taback runs for special needs children. The duo also participates in fundraising and events for the Mental Health Association of Westchester County.

When Fitzgerald was laid off from her job as a financial analyst at IBM in August 2010, she decided to devote her extra time to yet another cause: running the New York City Marathon.

“I was like, ‘what now?’” said Fitzgerald. “I went through a few different emotions of missing the family I worked with for 13 years, missing income and the lifestyle of working. I felt lost, but you could either sit on the couch and watch TV while your unemployed, or you can do stuff that you’ve been really wanting to do and couldn’t when you were working full-time.”

Fitzgerald, a volunteer for the Lupus Foundation of America for the last decade, was one of 40 chosen in the nation to run in the marathon for Team Life Without Lupus, which supports the foundation.

She soon got to work holding fundraisers and walking up and down Mamaroneck Avenue to local businesses—like , , , and in White Plains—to secure donations.

In addition to raising $5,000, she also begin training with a running coach, waking up at 4:45 a.m. to go to attend an early boot camp class at and running between 2 and 20 miles a day. Living with lupus made this harder for Fitzgerald on some days, but encouragement from her friends and family helped her endure. 

“With all the support that I had from my friends—especially Vanessa and Bobby [husband], and them saying how proud they are of me, and good I was doing—that really helped to motivate me,” said Fitzgerald.

It was this same group of people that would help lift Fitzgerald back up after she broke her foot two weeks before the marathon on Nov. 6, 2010, after stepping on a small rock while running through White Plains which caused her to drop-out of the race. 

“I broke down crying,” said Fitzgerald. I was really upset. I felt like all the hard work kind of when downhill, but I had a lot of love and support from my family and friends that helped me get though it.”

Fitzgerald was still on the sidelines supporting Team Life Without Lupus at the marathon with Taback and Robert Fitzgerald, who she married in September 2011.

As soon as Fitzgerald’s foot healed she went right back to training. She recently completed the 2011 New York City Marathon in 5 hours and 33 minutes, while raising $1,704 for Team Life Without Lupus (click here for her fundraising page).

“Amy never needs to be told ‘thank you’ or ‘great job,’” said Taback. “She just does everything out of the kindness of her heart. She is a special person. Having lupus isn’t something you share with people. You decide ‘It’s either going to keep me down or I’m going to use it to raise me up.’ It’s such a personal thing, and it speaks volumes about who Amy is.”

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