Scott Star Walking for a Cure from Delaware to California

Here is Scott Star story After about two years of dealing with periodic bouts of gut-related issues, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when I was 15 years old. I had no idea what this meant so it was very scary for me. Following the diagnosis was another period of about six months when my gastroenterologist was trying to figure out a medication that would alleviate my symptoms. My doctor put me on prednisone for a short period of time. She warned me that I might put on quite a few extra pounds since prednisone is a steroid, but luckily for me, there was no such weight gain, allowing me to keep my secret even longer (it really wasn’t until college that I started to feel comfortable telling people about the medication I was on and what it was for). It was 6-MP (mercaptopurine), a medication given to cancer patients and which suppresses the immune system, that finally put my body back on track. I have been very fortunate that since I was put on 6-MP at 16 years old, I can count the number of flare-ups I’ve had on one hand (I’m 24 now). And they have been shorter and easier to deal with than before 6-MP. I also never noticed a change in my immune system. I participated in CCFA’s Team Challenge in Spring 2013. For those unfamiliar, Team Challenge is a program where you train for a race (a half-marathon in my case) and raise funds for CCFA with a ton of cool people who are doing the same thing. On race weekend, I was assigned a roommate who had had some portion of his digestive system removed and always had to wear a colostomy bag. This guy was running the same 13.1 miles I would be running! It’s truly inspiring to see people overcome such obstacles. So many more people suffer from Crohn’s and colitis than we know about. Just thinking of how embarrassing it can be to have to run off to the bathroom out of nowhere makes me sympathize with those teens and pre-teens who just want to fit in. On February 27th, I began a six-month journey with my German friend Matthias walking from Delaware to California while raising money for CCFA. You can find my fundraising page here: https://fundraise.ccfa.org/twinkletwinkle . If you’d like to follow our trip, you can visit our website www.klimawalking.com or Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/klimawalking. As told by Scott