Welcome to JoeJrsJourney.com! This is the inspiring story of Joe Archiere, Jr. and his incredible battle against "Autoimmune Cerebellitis." He is the sixth person in the world that has been diagnosed with this very rare autoimmune disease. There is currently no official name for this disease, and we are unsure of the status of any developments of this research.

Joe Archiere, Jr., was in his second year of college studying to be a physical education teacher, working full time and enjoying life as any typical 20-year-old young man would. Besides seasonal allergies, he was a very healthy young man. During his years before May of 2009, he was involved in various sports – wrestling, baseball, football – enjoyed driving his 1989 Ford Mustang, hunting, fishing and enjoyed watching his favorite sport of auto racing at local dirt tracks and NASCAR tracks, and dreamed of one day racing his own dirt car.

In May of 2009, his life changed dramatically. He became ill with what was eventually diagnosed as an as-yet undefined autoimmune cerebellitis with all known antibodies negative, but a new antibody (uncharacterized – we call it the “bad antibody”) reactive against the cerebellum discovered in a research lab (the Mayo Clinic). This diagnosis came six weeks after his onset of illness, which basically means this “bad antibody” continued to attack Joey's cerebellum drastically effecting (taking away) all of his fine and gross motor skills.

There is no medication to make him better, no known cure. Rehabilitation is the only way to try and regain his motor skills.

Special thanks to Handsome Devil for supporting our awareness efforts at Accord Speedway on August 5th and providing us with an opportunity to raise awareness on site that night. Congratulations to.. (click to see more)

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