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Advocacy
May 23, 2011
Two Austin girls lobby in Washington for understanding, research
Cameron Smith of Austin is only 13 but she knows what it’s like to have constant stomach pains, vomit up to eight times a day and struggle to gain weight.
Now she wants members of Congress to know.
This week, from Wednesday through Friday, Cameron (on the right in the photo) and another girl from Austin, Catherine Wicker, (left) will visit Washington, D.C., to promote awareness and research into Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disorder that is a form of inflammatory bowel disease, and its cousin,colitis.
“I’m going to talk to them about my life with Crohn’s and tell them about Crohn’s and colitis,” said Cameron, who is planning to speak with Sens. John Cornyn, Kay Bailey Hutchison and possibly others.
She fell ill at age 10 and weighed just 49 pounds. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s the following year and was put on 14 different medicines and vitamins because she was so malnourished.
Now, she’s down to one pill twice a day, Pentasa, “and I feel a ton better,” she said.
“Yesterday I had my 13-year-old well check and I am finally on the growth charts and am on track to where I was before I was sick,” she wrote in an email last week. “I am 4’10’’ and am 82 pounds, which is 15 percent for my age. My twin sister is 25 percent so I’m catching up to her.”
She and Catherine are representing the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. U.S. Reps. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., and Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., launched the Congressional Crohn’s and Colitis Caucus in March to push for research into the diseases, which affect 1.4 million Americans.
Research funding from the National Institutes of Health has tightened, but Cameron said she is undaunted: “We hope research will find a cure.”
Catherine, who has ulcerative colitis, was featured in the Statesman in 2006 when she 10 and lobbied the Texas Legislature to expand access to employee-only restrooms in stores.
Last month, the two girls met. “It was really cool to meet someone who has been going through something like me,” Cameron said.
Together, they hope to make a difference.
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