. >> reporter: phyllis mervine spends a lot of time in the outdoors. she and her family moved to this 80-acre ranch in rural mendocino county in the 1970s. it wasn't long after that she started feeling sick. >> i just started feeling really run down and -- and extremely tired and achy. >> reporter: for 10 years, phyllis lived with debilitating symptoms. a neighbor at her weekly pottery class suggested she get tested for a newly discovered bacterial infection carried by ticks called lyme disease. >> she saw me dragging in week after week, said, phyllis, you ought to get testinged. >> reporter: phyllis did test positive and she quickly realized she wasn't alone. >> i called all the neighbors and i said, you know, i have just been diagnosed with lyme disease. do you know anything about it? have you got lyme disease? or, you know, do you have any of these symptoms? quite a few people had lyme up here. >> reporter: that was the start of a 20-year journey that has made phyllis mervine one of the pioneers in fighting lyme disease in california. her ranch beca

. >> reporter: phyllis mervine spends a lot of times outdoors.nd her family moved to this 80-acre ranch in rural mendocino county in the 1970s. it wasn't long after that she started feeling sick. >> i just started feeling really run down and extremely tired and achy. >> reporter: for 10 years, phyllis lived with debilitating symptoms. a neighbor at her weekly pottery class suggested she get tested for a newly discovered bacteriaial infection carried by ticks, called lyme disease. >> she saw me dragging in week after week. she said phyllis, you ought to get tested. >> reporter: phyllis did test positive and quickly realized she wasn't alone. >> i called all the neighbors and i said, you know, i've just been diagnosed with lyme disease. have -- do you know anything about it? have you got lyme disease, or, you know, do you have any of these symptoms? quite a few people had lyme up here. >> reporter: that was the start of a 20-year jersey that made fill lice mervine a pioneer in fighting lyme disease in california. her ranch became ground zero, colle