6/17/2009: Philadelphia, PA—Rower with CMT Continues to Fight Disease

MEAGAN BERRY can hardly feel the oar in her hands. Sometimes she will let it go without noticing or thinking. That's about the only sign you might detect. You look at Berry and it's hard to believe she's on a time clock. A glance at her swimmer's shoulders under her dirty-blond hair doesn't indicate anything; nor does her athletic 5-9 frame reveal any clues. Neither does her resume at Episcopal Academy, which includes varsity letters on EA's swimming and water polo teams, plus 2 years in one of the most grueling sports on joints, crew.

Yet the Episcopal senior knows what's ahead. She knows, and it's what makes trips such as the one Berry is taking this week to England - with fellow EA senior Erin Flynn and juniors Emma Ciccotti and Bridget Gribbin, to the Henley Women's Regatta, an elite rowing event in Henley-on-Thames - that much more special, that much more lasting.

Berry, who lives in Havertown, suffers from a disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy, or peroneal muscular atrophy, which comprises a group of disorders that affect peripheral nerves.

Former 76er Todd MacCulloch retired in September 2004 after being diagnosed with the condition.

What compounds Berry's situation is she also has Type I diabetes, or insulin-dependent diabetes, when the cells of the pancreas produce little or no insulin, the hormone that allows sugar (glucose) to enter body cells.

The combination of CMT and diabetes, Berry has been told, will most likely put her in a wheelchair by the time she is in her 30s. It's a time clock she often jokes about, rarely gets down about, and has never - that's never - let it deter her from anything.

"It's hard for people to believe that I have a disease, but I like that, though, because I don't want people thinking, like, poor Meagan," said Berry, who is headed to Cornell, where she'll row next fall.

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