In a conversation with Claudia Dreifus from the New York Times, Nobel Prize winner Dr. Carol W. Greider acknowledges her struggle with dyslexia and says it influenced her to pursue the study of science. Greider, of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, shared a Nobel Prize this week for her research on telomeres.

Q. Did you always want to be a biologist?

A. My parents were scientists. But I wasn’t the sort of child who did science fairs. One of the things I was thinking about today is that as a kid I had dyslexia. I had a lot of trouble in school and was put into remedial classes. I thought that I was stupid.

Q. That must have hurt.

A. Sure. Yes. It was hard to overcome that. I kept thinking of ways to compensate. I learned to memorize things very well because I just couldn’t spell words. So later when I got to take classes like chemistry and anatomy where I had to memorize things, it turned out I was very good at that.

See also:

Mild autism has ’selective advantages’; Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith discusses his personal challenges with Asperger syndrome — NBC News

From the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USC press release:

Elyn Saks, a USC law professor whose struggle with schizophrenia has informed her advocacy on behalf of those with mental illness, is among the 24 winners of this year’s “genius” grants from the MacArthur Foundation. Honorees receive $500,000 to be used at their discretion.

Saks, 53, kept her schizophrenia hidden while excelling academically, earning a philosophy degree from Oxford University and a law degree from Yale University. In addition to her work at the USC law school, Saks is also an adjunct professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego, where she does research about society’s rejection of the mentally ill and how high-functioning schizophrenics cope.

Saks came out of the mental health closet with her 2007 memoir, “The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness.” The book described the night terrors she had suffered throughout her life, her earlier beliefs that she had mentally caused the deaths of thousands of people, and the often-inhumane treatment she had received at mental health facilities.

Saks said in an interview that she would use at least some of the prize money to extend her memoir by interviewing other people with schizophrenia who are doing well.

“When I’m traveling, people always say, ‘You’re unique.’ Well, I’m really not,” she said. “I would just like to tell other people’s stories as well to further give people hope and understanding.”

From the StoryCorps oral history project on National Public Radio:

Ricky Boone, a magician and owner of a magic shop in Asheville, NC, tells his friend Patty Barber about the teacher who transformed his life.

Boone was born with a rare bone disorder that stunted his growth and limited his mobility. He says he spent his childhood in a rural area where “people were ashamed that the next door neighbor was a disabled child.” Then one day, everything changed: a new teacher showed up at school on a Harley motorcycle. He was wearing a black leather jacket.

That teacher, Grovner Wood, became the principal and embarked upon teaching Boone magic tricks, frequently paging him over the loudspeaker to come down to the principal’s office.

Today, Boone says he owes everything to his former principal. He’s been a professional magician for 36 years and owns his own magic shop, Magic Central.

He says that people “see me as someone to pity. It takes a lot to get past that initial shock. But if I can make that person laugh their butt off, then they have no time to feel sorry for me, and they forget that I’m in a chair.”

From the [Cherry Hill, NJ] Courier-Post:

Golfer Brad Hennefer, who has Down syndrome, has been selected in a nationwide internet vote to represent the Philadelphia Phillies at the 2009 All-Star Game in St. Louis this summer.

Hennefer, 20, was nominated in the “All-Stars Among Us” campaign for his work with the Golf for Life Foundation. The campaign, sponsored by Major League Baseball and People Magazine, recognizes individuals who have gone above and beyond to serve their communities. Winners will be honored at a pregame ceremony on July 14.

With the help of his family and the Philadelphia Section PGA, the 2008 Cherry Hill East High School graduate started the foundation in 2006. The organization provides coaching and opportunities for youngsters with Down syndrome.

Hennefer played varsity sports in high school, lettering in both golf and basketball.

Earlier posts here.

(Courier-Post photo)

‘Eight cyclists show what vigilance about health can accomplish’

By Tara Parker-Pope in the New York Times:

A team of eight cyclists with Type 1 diabetes completed the 3021-mile Race Across America in record time last week. Team members said the skills they had gained in managing their diabetes provided them with a competitive edge, helping them manage their health and performance meticulously throughout the grueling ride.

The accomplishments of the cyclists, who have a corporate sponsor and ride as Team Type 1, have become a source of inspiration for the estimated three million Americans with Type 1 diabetes, and especially for worried parents confronting a diagnosis of the disease in their children.

But the victory also offers lessons for the rest of us, underlining the benefits of daily vigilance when it comes to health.

… The cyclists’ average speed was 23.41 miles per hour — 0.17 better than the winner last year, a Norwegian cycling team made up of professionals.

See also:

Cyclists with Type 1 diabetes race across America — New York Times

(NYT photo: Team Type 1 co-founders Joe Eldridge, left, and Phil Southerland)

International singing sensation

From the [UK] Mirror, [UK] Times, CBS News and elsewhere:

By now, just about everybody has heard about Susan Boyle, the plain Scottish spinster whose extraordinary singing voice dumfounded the judges of a British talent show this week. Videos of her thrilling performance on “Britain’s Got Talent” have gotten more than 18 million views on Youtube, and she is already reportedly in talks with a record label.

But what many may not know is that Boyle, an unemployed church worker who cared for her elderly mother until her death two years ago, has a lifelong history of disability. Boyle says she has learning disabilities, the result of oxygen deprivation at birth, and was bullied in school because she was slow and had frizzy hair.

“The ones who made fun of me are now nice to me,” she told CBS News, “so I may have won them round.” She said she hopes her arresting debut on the TV talent show will remind people not to judge by appearances.

(Photo from the [UK] Times)

See also: It wasn’t singer Susan Boyle who was ugly on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ so much as our reaction to her — Tanya Gold in the [UK] Guardian

UPDATE: From Deadine Scotland:

[Boyle] says she hopes the show will highlight her disability too.  She said, “I was slightly brain damaged at birth, and I want people like me to see that they shouldn’t let a disability get in the way. I want to raise awareness — I want to turn my disability into ability.”

From U.S. News & World Report:

As children with autism are growing up and looking to the future, innovative programs are popping up around the country to help them move from high school to adult life.

The aim: give them the chance to go to work, go to college, or even start a business rather than collecting disability benefits and being limited to a sheltered workshop.

Some options include:

• “Supportive and Customized Employment,” in which school systems and state vocational rehabilitation programs work together to help teenagers move into the workforce while still in high school.
• “Employment First” programs which help shift the priorities of social service agencies so that the first step is placing people in a paid job in a regular workplace rather than collecting disability benefits.
• Resource ownership, in which job-training funds and Social Security work incentives are used to buy tools or equipment that a person with a disability will then use on the job.
• Small business ownership.

See also:

How 1 Autistic Young Man Runs a Business — U.S. News and World Report. A young man with autism and Down syndrome runs Poppin’ Joe’s Kettle Korn in Louisburg, Kan., with the help of his parents and five part-time employees.

(U.S. News & World Report photo)