The WM Parenting Connection

By Angela Atkinson

Maggie Fuller's mom, Heidi Fuller, wrote me a letter recently, asking me to help tell Maggie's story. Maggie's 21 and a college student who loves to travel--but she's no ordinary student. Maggie was recently diagnosed with Crohn's disease after suffering for ten years undiagnosed. Crohn's disease is a typically painful inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Symptoms of Crohn's disease include serious belly pain, fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, pain with bowel movements, constant diarrhea and unintentional weight loss. other possible symptoms are constipation, eye and liver problems, fistulas, joint pain, ulcers in the mouth, and other painful and unpleasant conditions.

Heidi hopes that our readers can help Maggie to fulfill her lifelong dream of traveling around the world. And, it won't cost you a thing. All you have to do is click.

"Maggie endured undiagnosed Crohn's disease for 10 years and suffered her worst year without pain medication or health care or her parents' comfort last year while studying abroad," Heidi said. "Back home, diagnosed and following surgery, her hearty, feisty spirit has her on the move again. She's vying for a world-travel internship."

Maggie's story is an inspiring one, and once you read it, I hope you'll share it with everyone you know.

Meet Maggie

Driven since earliest memory to travel the world, a senior development studies major at UC Berkeley is embarking on the improbable task of gathering thousands of votes in one week for her video application for a world-travel internship this summer. But compared to battling severe symptoms of an undiagnosed auto-immune disease while alone on an internship in an impoverished region of Central America last summer, the 21-year-old considers the task relatively achievable.

Maggie Fuller needs votes and, with an attitude that got her through her ordeal, she believes she’ll get them.

Fuller, who grew up in Corte Madera, CA, earned top honors at Redwood High School, and maintains a 3.7 GPA at Cal, is vying for one of 50 top spots in the STA Travel 2010 World Travel Internship competition. With the endorsement of enough votes, Fuller will enter the next level of the application process, in which a panel of judges from STA Travel, mtvU and other partners will select 50 videos based on creativity, uniqueness, likeability, video skills, and personality. The top 50 will submit a full application complete with resume, past travel experience and references. The top 20 applicants will be announced on March 23.

Fuller just recently learned of the internship opportunity. She put together her application and video in two days to meet a deadline, which later was extended another week. The top vote getter has more than 29,000 votes. Fuller has just under 400 votes with only a week to go, but the feisty 5’4," 110-pound redhead whose travels have brought her face-to-face with "cockroaches the size of my hand," bomb scares, and machete-wielding farm labor – not to mention debilitating Crohn’s flare-ups unaided by pain medication and health services - remains undaunted.

"I have to believe I have a chance; this has my future written all over it," said Fuller.

Fuller opted for surgery during last December’s semester break to repair the wreckage of Crohn’s disease, which had crept into her intestines for 10 years and sent doctors down numerous diagnoses dead-ends.

Before diagnosis, Fuller had left for a year-long study abroad program first in Ireland and then in Costa Rica. She stayed in Costa Rica to work an internship on an organic farm cooperative that supports the livelihoods of single mothers in Cariari, a remote village in Costa Rica where roads look like dry creek beds. She lived in a cement structure with an undetached roof, no kitchen, and no doors. Fuller's flare-ups increased throughout her stay in Costa Rica and reached unbearable levels during her internship.

There were no health clinics nearby; Fuller ran out of Ibuprophen early in her stay and had no other pain medication. When asked how she managed, she said she just curled up on her mattress and waited the six or eight hours until it ended.

She said "I got used to it; I knew eventually it would end."

When Fuller returned to health services in the United States, her fortitude was made even clearer when neither Vicoden nor Bella Donna would subdue her pain. Following confirmed Crohn’s diagnosis, Fuller’s doctor would not release her for a scheduled trip to support a Panama youth hostel without surgery. She recovered from a laparscopy in time to make the trip and returned to full-time studies to finish her senior year.

Crohn’s disease is an auto-immune condition that often takes years to diagnose. Like other auto-immune diseases, it attacks healthy tissues, causing inflammation and scarring that, in turn, attracts an immune response to continue to battle tissues that technically are not diseased. The condition will challenge Fuller’s career plans to service developing economies in countries where her needs for diet restrictions and minimal stress will pale in comparison to the problems of impoverished populations she will serve.

Fuller is majoring in development studies in the International and Area Studies Teaching Program (IASTP) at the University of California at Berkeley. Her concentration is Latin America and the Caribbean. To vote for her, go to http://www.worldtravelerintern.com/member/maggie-fuller/. Fuller also has two Facebook pages: Let’s Go Viral and Vote for Maggie.

On behalf of everyone at The WM Parenting Connection: Maggie, you're an inspiration, and we're pulling for you!

To our readers, please become fans of Maggie's Facebook pages and suggest them to your friends! And don't forget to vote for Maggie today! Let's work together to help this mother help her daughter's dream come true!

Watch Maggie's Video Application!

Vote a Girl Around the World: Maggie's Story