By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- Mary Kate Cash had just turned 11 when she got sick.

She had "horrible, almost paralyzing" stomach aches. She lost 10 pounds in just a couple of weeks. She just wanted to sleep all the time.

Cash's mother, a nurse, knew something was seriously wrong.

At Duke Hospital, the whole family got the word on exactly what was wrong: Cash had Crohn's disease, a chronic, debilitating gastrointestinal illness in which the body's immune system attacks healthy cells in the GI tract.

While her mother cried, Cash herself took the news fairly calmly.

"I was OK about it," the 18-year-old Duke University freshman recalled recently. "I'm generally a pretty calm person."

She's also a pretty determined one. Despite the disease, Cash was a straight-A student at Riverside High School, a cheerleading all-star and has been an advocate for those suffering from Crohn's disease who had lobbied Congress for more federal funding for research on the illness.

She's also the recipient of a $10,000 UCB Crohn's Scholarship, from a global pharmaceutical company. The scholarship, said Rachel Della Serra of UCB, is for "students who demonstrate exceptional drive and determination to live beyond the boundaries of Crohn's disease."

While very glad for the scholarship -- "Duke's ridiculously expensive," Cash acknowledged with a smile -- she doesn't think the whole thing is ... well, such a big deal.

"I see myself as luckier than a lot of people who have Crohn's," she said. "Lots of kids have had multiple surgeries and high doses of medications with really bad side effects. It could be so much worse."

Instead, to keep the Crohn's under control, Cash restricts her diet -- no nuts, seeds or popcorn -- and tries to make sure she takes her medicine.

"I'm a college student, so sometimes I sleep late, and it's been difficult to take my morning meds when that happens," she said. "But after taking my meds three times a day, I'm now going to be down to just once a day, because they've improved the meds, so that should make it easier," she said.

She hasn't had many severe flare-ups of the disease since she was diagnosed, and has only been admitted once to the hospital. "It's not been too bad, really," Cash said. "I'm probably more optimistic than I should be."

Cash understands that she will have to live her whole life with Crohn's. But she hopes, through her advocacy work, that she can help others who have the disease.

"There's probably not going to be a cure in my lifetime," she admitted. "But maybe if we can get more money into research, maybe others will benefit."

Information about this year's scholarship program for those who have Crohn's is available at www.crohnsandme.com/.