Episode 35: Teen Makes Impact with TickTracker App

Cindy Kennedy, FNP, chats with Olivia Goodreau, a spirited 13-year-old who does not let her Lyme disease keep her down. She not only is the co-inventor of the TickTracker App, but also the founder of the LivLyme Foundation. She will also be gathering the top Lyme doctors, scientists and speakers, who work to improve the lives of Lyme sufferers, at the LivLyme Summit in Colorado in September 2018. Quite an amazing young lady!

In July 2017, Olivia was on vacation in Missouri with her family. While outside Olivia noticed a tick on her dog, Mo (short for Missouri). Olivia and her mom watched the tick start to burrow into Mo’s leg. They quickly found needle nose tweezers to properly remove the tick from Mo. As Olivia was removing the tick she asked her mom, “Is there an app that can show what ticks are around us?” That night Olivia looked online and found that currently there was no app to help track, report, and educate people about ticks. This gave Olivia the idea to create the TickTracker app to help keep everyone safe.

Olivia founded the LivLyme Foundation in 2017 when she was 12 years old, to raise money for children that cannot afford their Lyme medication and to fund research to find a cure for all suffering from Lyme disease. She has testified in front of the Health & Human Services Tick-Borne Disease Working Group and both the House and Senate in the State of Maryland. Olivia has presented at Stanford, the University of Colorado School of Public Health and various other organizations.

Awards received include “The Bravery Award” from Stanford University’s BioADD Laboratory, the “Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes”, the “Women Who Inspire” in the “beboldforchange” from Nigeria’s Florence Ozor Foundation and the 2017 “People Who Inspire Award” from Ride Out Lyme. In 2017 Colorado Gov/ John Hickenlooper proclaimed April 8th as “Olivia Goodreau Day” in recognition of “her commitment to increasing awareness of Lyme Disease and to supporting scientists, doctors, and researchers as they work to improve treatment and find a cure”.

Olivia hopes the LivLyme Foundation will positively impact those that suffer from all tick-borne diseases. As the inventor of TickTracker, she is striving to educate the public and keep people safe while creating a database for research use.  Olivia loves reading, art, Greek Mythology, Imagine Dragons, her friends & family, and her 3 dogs, Rocky, Rosie & Lily.