Short for me to be unhappy for four years,’ so yeah, so that didn’t last too long.”These days Young’s calendar is filling up with speaking engagements. She does not charge a fee, but asks for a love offering. Audiences get a glimpse of her upbeat attitude and sharp sense of humor — and they find out how her faith has .

Sister came up with the idea to do a 5K run in my honor, but we had to figure out a charity to give the proceeds to. It was a perfect idea and my charity is Camp Firefly,” said Young.Participants can register for the race online at www.lovinlife5K.com. Registration is $30 for adults and $20 for runners/walkers 12 and under. .
Awards will be given for the top male and female and 12 and under participants with the best recorded time.Young also maintains a Web Site, www.mandyyoung.com, and blog, and she has followers on Twitter and Facebook.“I am a Facebookaholic and I admit it,” she said.She is looking forward to reconnecting in person with high school friends as the 2000 graduating .
Class of Salem High School holds its reunion this weekend.Young said she attended college but found it wasn’t for her.“I was never a big student,” she said with a laugh. “I am a social butterfly. That is the only reason I ever even wanted to go to school. College was a totally different ballgame. I said ‘life is way too .

Everything happens for a reason. He let me live through a story,” said Young.“He’s given me a mouth that never shuts up and the personality that’s never met a stranger. He gave me all that for a reason. I’m supposed to go out there and tell other people that bad things happen, but you can get over it.”In addition to .
Enjoying family, friends and work, Young adores softball. She played for years but recently had to take some time off because of arthritis in her knee.As a youngster, Young enrolled in gymnastics, which taught her “unbelievable balance,” she said. To play softball, she stands on one leg as she bats and then has a runner run the bases for her. .
She uses a crutch in the outfield.Young works at a local real estate office, where she has served as a licensed agent, and a receptionist. She is close to her parents, Lisa and Speed Young of Conyers, and her sister Alex. It was her sister who encouraged Young to do something special to mark the celebration of her life-saving amputation.“My .

A gas gangrene infection.The infection was consuming her body, beginning in her leg. Doctors amputated her hip and leg in an attempt to stop the infection from spreading and save her life. They gave her less than a three percent chance of survival.Young defied the odds and recovered from the ordeal.After enduring almost 21 years of being what Young calls .
A “lab rat,” she learned that Gallin discovered the basis of her problem. The immune system problem was related to a mutation in a gene called IRAK-4, which is important in cell signaling in response to bacterial infection.Doctors also discovered there were three other children — one in Florida and two in France — who suffered from the same problem.Despite .
A lifetime of illness and near-death experiences, Young remains an upbeat and energetic young woman with a desire to encourage others through life’s trials and tribulations through motivational speaking.“I go to speak at churches, women’s groups, youth groups. I talk a lot about my medical life and about my faith and how I wouldn’t be anywhere without God and that .

— one of the many in a long line of medical emergencies that began when she was just nine months old.“My parents have been told nine separate times that I wouldn’t live through the night and that they should come in and tell me good-bye,” Young said.“But they never did … Scientists told my parents that my body is further .
Advanced than medicine. The test hasn’t been invented to define my problem.”Young contracted bacterial meningitis at 9 months old and strokes and seizures followed. Survival seemed bleak. Another attack of meningitis hit her at 16 months and again at 21 months. Experts were baffled at the number of times Young developed the disease.Medical experts, including her doctors at Egleston Children’s .
Hospital, now Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, were confounded as Young was hospitalized more than 100 times while they tried to diagnose her problem.The family finally turned to Dr. John Gallin at the National Institute of Health in Maryland for help. She was a research patient there for 19 years. During that time, at age 8, Young contracted clostridia septicemia, including .

In the past two decades, her story has been told on the pages of this newspaper, as well on television show’s such as “CNN’s Medical Mysteries,” NBC’s Nightly News” and “The Montel Williams Show.” But as Mandy Young prepares to enjoy what she calls her “celebration date,” her story continues to amaze and inspire everyone who finds out about it.On .
June 4, the Conyers resident will celebrate the 20th anniversary of losing her leg — but gaining her life.To mark such an important milestone in Young’s life journey, the first Lovin’ Life 5K cross-country race/walk will be held at the Elks Aidmore Children’s Center in Conyers on June 5. Registration begins at 8 a.m. with opening ceremonies at 8:30.Proceeds will .
Benefit Callaway Gardens’ Camp Firefly, which is also celebrating its 20th anniversary this year as a camp for terminally and seriously ill children and their families.Young attended Camp Firefly the second year it opened and called it one of the “best weeks of my life.” That was the year after doctors amputated her left leg because of a life-threatening infection .