Young Alumnus Award recognizes woman's work in disease support
By Tiffany Pakkala October 16, 2002
Last updated: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 12:11 PM EDT
Messiah College graduate Carissa Haston may not have eaten a meal since 1999, but she's still strong enough to pull together more than 800 people worldwide in an online support network she created for fellow sufferers of a rare disease called gastroparesis.
The college honored her with its 2002 Young Alumnus Award at a ceremony Tuesday after she developed the world's leading website for gastroparesis patients and founded the Gastroparesis Patient Association for Cures and Treatment (G-PACT).
The 24-year-old from Lewisberry first began dealing with gastroparesis in 1994. She started feeling nauseated when she ate and eventually couldn't hold food down. She tried medications, intravenous feeding, even a gastric pacemaker, which stimulates the stomach muscles. Finally, she had to give up food altogether in 1999.
For the first three years of her illness, Carissa says, "I was depressed. No more food, no more sports. Then I realized I had to cope because it wasn't going to go away."
She says her attitude was changed during a worship service at the college, when she decided to "start focusing on how to use (the disease) to help others and be a Christian testimony to them."
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