Get tested for Hep C, Georgetown woman urges

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An Acton woman is making good on a promise to spread the word after receiving treatment that cured her of hepatitis C two years ago.

Sharon Rider got the disease from a tainted blood transfusion during spine surgery as a 16-year-old and had been carrying the virus, with no symptoms, for 23 years before it was diagnosed.

Meanwhile, she’d gotten married and had two kids, never knowing she was putting her family at risk of getting the disease.

It was routine pre-surgery blood testing that informed her, at age 39, she was living with the “silent killer” virus.

Hepatitis C attacks the liver and can lead to liver cancer, liver failure or death. It is contagious and spreads through contact with infected blood.

“I had the surgery and everything went well, but I needed to get my blood tested every six months. I was fine for many years. It was years before I really had symptoms. I just remember being tired. I was tired, really tired. I just thought, this is the life of a working mom,” Rider, 54, said.

“I vowed to my husband, ‘If this works, I am going to tell anyone who will listen,’” she said of the drug treatment that cured her.

“My mission is to encourage people to get the blood test.”

“At 52 years old I was cured. It is a miracle,” Rider says.