Teen of the Week: Student Becomes Advocate Against Crohn’s

By MARC SHAPIRO Staff Writer

Being diagnosed with a disease at the age of 10 can be traumatic.

But for Allie Rize, now a 16-year-old sophomore at Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, learning that she has Crohn’s disease turned her into an advocate rather than a victim.

“It was definitely a shock,” she said. “That was the first time that anything like that happened to me.”

Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that can affect any part of the wall of the bowel or intestines. The most common symptoms are abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, weight loss or weight gain.

Luckily for Allie, the daughter of Denise and Mark Rize of Severn, her disease was diagnosed early and is not a severe case.

In January, Allie was named youth on board to the Maryland and Southern Delaware Chapter of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding the cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, another form of inflammatory bowel disease.

“I think it’s a really worthy cause and not many people know about it,” she said.

As youth on board, it is her job to get corporate sponsors and in- kind donations, as well as appear on television and in newspapers to discuss the disease and promote events. She is currently helping the CCFA plan its next walk-a-thon in June.

“I figured that would be a good way to help get word out and help support the cause,” Allie said. Through working with the CCFA, she has connected with others who have the disease and has learned a lot along the way.

“It really doesn’t affect my everyday life as much as some other people,” she said.

Other than having to take medication and vitamins and avoid certain foods, the disease is not as ever-present as it can be in severe cases, which can result in prolonged hospitalization. A friend of hers who also has Crohn’s recently got out of the hospital after a 2-month stay.

“With talking to other people who have it and seeing how it affects them, I just realized how lucky I am,” she said. “It makes you want to stay faithful to the medication and everything, scares you into doing the right thing.”

The honor roll student first got involved with CCFA about five years ago, when she and her mother took part in the state’s first walk-a-thon, held at Centennial Park in Howard County, to raise funds to fight the disease.

She decided to get more involved and joined the walk’s committee. Last year, she was the youth chairman of the walk. From working closely with the CCFA and getting to know the board members, they offered her the position of youth on board in January.

“She is an incredible young woman,” said Suellen Siegel, the Maryland and Southern Delaware CCFA development manager. “I can’t imagine when I was 16 that I could go on network television and talk about it.”

She is happy to have Allie on board to help teens get more involved with the organization.

“The more teens we have, the more money we raise,” she said, “and the more money we raise, the closer we come to a cure.”

In addition to her work in the CCFA, Allie is also on the model United Nations team and academic team at Spalding. She also sings at Masses in the school’s liturgical group.

“It’s just another way to challenge myself,” she said. In her free time, she reads and does yoga.

Allie’s mother, who had ulcerative colitis until she had it surgically corrected, is not only proud of her daughter’s involvement with the CCFA, but also of how strictly she takes her medication and watches her diet.

“Rather than letting this set her back, she decided to step forward and take a part in trying to find a cure,” Mrs. Rize said. A lot of Allie’s initial worries about having Crohn’s stemmed from her mother having a more severe case of colitis.

“Because she was the only one I know that had it,” Allie said, “I automatically thought it was going to be

as severe as her case was.”

But from reading pamphlets and learning about the disease, she found out that not all cases are as severe as her mother’s was.

“I’ve been very lucky,” she said.

(c) 2008 Maryland Gazette. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.