Despite MS, his hands aren't idle

There's a lot to be said for keeping your hands busy.
When Len Cuccarese began cutting hair alongside his father at the Acme Barbershop in downtown Youngstown in 1960, he planned on keeping his hands busy with the clippers buzzing for a good many years. His father had already been cutting hair for more than 25 years at the shop. Len planned on working his fingers to the bone to keep the family legacy clipping along.
But Len's hands were idled and his dream was cut short by multiple sclerosis.
"I was diagnosed with MS in 1980," Len says. By 1981, his fingers had clipped their last head of hair.
"Your disease progressed very quickly," I said as I wrote down the dates, knowing that MS progresses differently with every individual.
"No," Len informed me. "I was treated for arthritis for 16 years."
The aching in his bones and the loss of balance he often experienced had been diagnosed as arthritis. After a fall at the barbershop, he knew his collapse was not caused by arthritis. He told his doctors he wasn't leaving the hospital until they knew what was wrong with him.
What the doctors said
The doctors informed him he had just experienced an exacerbation (to make more violent or severe) as a result of mMultiple sclerosis. By the end of 1980, Len could no longer stand for any length of time without his legs giving out.
"I could maybe do one haircut and then I was done for the day," he says in noting how this disease began to strip away his livelihood. "My legs got really weak."
Len went from his fingers busily clipping 15 to 20 heads a day, ("I didn't count 'em, I just cut 'em," he says) to finding himself twiddling his thumbs at home.
Then Len found the Multiple Sclerosis Services Agency in Austintown.
"I wanted to find out what this disease was all about," he says. Through the literature the agency provided and the symposiums it sponsored, Len received the answers to his questions about multiple sclerosis.
Len also found work for his idle hands.
"I volunteered at the agency getting mailings ready, stamping literature, whatever needed to be done," Len recalls.
Len's work was a valuable resource for the Multiple Sclerosis Services Agency, which provides all its services to Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties residents for free.
Keeping busy
Len continued to keep his hands busy as he and his wife, Dorothy, served as the head of a support group for the agency for several years.
"They're like family after a while," Len says of the members of his support group.
This Sunday, Len's hands will have their busiest day of the year. He will serve as a greeter for the 9.8 mile MS Super Walk held in Mill Creek Park.
"I tell the people thanks for coming and hope that they have a good walk," he explains. "Then we give them a hand when they come back."
It's applause that comes straight from Len's heart.
He would like nothing more than to walk the 9.8 miles on his own two feet, but MS took the use of his legs four years ago.
Len will be greeting and applauding from his wheelchair, thankful that so many caring individuals have chosen to walk in support of the agency that has given him information, support and a "family" of friends. All the funds raised by the walkers stay in the tri-county area.
Just like his days back in the barbershop, Len won't count the walkers, he'll just keep his hands busy by applauding for them all.
gwhite@vindy.com