At 16 years old, Amanda Swanton started experiencing what would become a sequence of 25 fainting spells that obstructed her everyday, teenage life.
Curious as to the nature of these spells, Swanton visited half a dozen doctors before she was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS. This is a syndrome of the autonomic nervous system controlling heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. A person with POTS has a higher heart rate which creates palpitations and dizziness.
“I started having these really bad fainting spells; they would happen anywhere,” Swanton said. “I’d go to school, I’d go home, I’d be at show choir practice, and I would just pass out.”
Swanton eventually had to leave show choir, but still found enjoyment in watching and playing soccer with her cousin Abbey Krull.
Swanton’s parents describe the journey to POTS diagnosis as a rocky one.
“I was like a rollercoaster of emotions,” said her father, Sal Swanton. “You start out thinking that it’s the absolute worst, so every time we got news that it was not a brain tumor, we could cross that off the list and were so grateful. Receiving that news was always a relief, but then we’d go right onto the next, and right back on that rollercoaster.”
Swanton’s mom, Linda Swanton, said after more than 16 visits to the emergency room, the family became vexed.
“(Amanda Swanton) was so frustrated with what she went through. Some doctors didn’t even mention POTS or had no clue what it was,” Linda Swanton said.
Inspired by her own trepidatious journey, Swanton developed a passion for getting the word out about POTS, a surprisingly common syndrome. After being diagnosed, she began to research her condition. According to Swanton, POTS affects three million people around the world, which is more than Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease combined.
“After that, I went online and did some research on POTS, and what I found was really upsetting and heartbreaking—people who were completely debilitated and laying in bed and just so upset that they had this,” she said. “I thought that was so unfair. So I decided that this is not going to be me, nor is it going to be anybody else, so I decided to start a nonprofit organization.”
Swanton thought of the idea to start A85 Cure in January 2016. At first, her mother suggested they call the organization the Amanda Swanton Foundation, but Swanton said it sounded like “too much me for me.” To keep a piece of herself in the name, she added the “A,” and the 85 comes from a statistic. Amanda said 85 percent of patients will be misdiagnosed before they find out they have POTS. The word “cure” was added because funding research is a large part of the foundation.
Originally from Chicago, which is where she founded her nonprofit, Swanton decided to attend Mississippi State University to study business administration with a minor in public relations.
While touring MSU last spring, she came across the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach, which has nurtured successful startup companies like Glo and Juva. On her second day of school, she walked into the E-Center with plans to grow her nonprofit.
She went through the stages of the VentureCatalyst program, which is designed to help students and faculty get startups up and running. However, the Entrepreneurship Center Advisory Board had never given a grant to a nonprofit before, Director of Outreach Jeffrey Rupp said.
“This is, I believe, the first of its kind for us,” he said. “She went through the process like any other entrepreneur. She got the $500 to explore the idea, and she qualified to go before ECAB, so well why not let her pitch? She really took that pitch seriously. She had done her homework. She was smart, she was committed, and if she were pitching a business, she would have passed the pitch with flying colors.”
When the board was discussing the pitches, they decided this was one they needed to fund.
“We believe in her. We believe in the cause,” Rupp said. “Also, we believe that entrepreneurs should be giving back, so we wanted to set the example.”
As far as this instance setting precedence for other nonprofits to pitch to ECAB, Rupp said funding will still be decided on a case-by-case basis.
“The Entrepreneurship Center and entrepreneurship by definition is about starting ventures and making money. It’s our main goal,” Rupp said. “The bar is pretty high for nonprofits.”
Speaking on Swanton’s character, Rupp said he admires her initiative.
“She’s carrying a full load: she has this disease, she’s started a nonprofit,” he said. “I mean, she’s trying to do all these things at once and I have a lot of admiration for her.”
Swanton’s father echoed Rupp’s sentiment, saying whenever she is passionate about something, she really delves into it.
“She’s a very compassionate, empathetic person,” Sal said. “She can put herself in someone else’s shoes. She’s just the kind of person that wakes up every day in a great mood and is ready to make you laugh.”
Using her enthusiasm through A85 Cure, Swanton is able to bring awareness to POTS by fundraising and spreading knowledge on social media. Some fundraisers include golf tournaments, dance marathons and partnerships with businesses to have sales.
“I’m not a doctor, I’m not medically trained, but I’m helping somebody else by bringing awareness to the cause,” Swanton said.
For example, on Feb. 7, A85 Cure will partner with Kendra Scott Jewelry to have a jewelry sale at MSU, where students will get a 10 percent discount and 10 percent of the profit will go to A85 Cure.
Amanda said she is grateful for the help from the E-Center.
“It’s really an honor… It’s really so cool that I can look back and say, ‘A85 was the first nonprofit to come out of here,’” Swanton said.