Family Focus: Foundation raises awareness for Crohn's disease

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By Stephanie Maxwell

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There are 41,000 people in the Carolinas living with Crohn's disease or colitis – a disease that attacks the digestive system.
 
Anchor Stephanie Maxwell met a teen diagnosed at 8 years old who is now the face of an important Charlotte fundraiser raising awareness.
 
Spending time outdoors is everything to the Nelson family, especially to Carter who said camping is one of his favorite things about being a boy scout.
 
His parents started noticing when he was around seven that Carter was much smaller than kids his age.
 
 "I wasn't growing a lot either," Carter said. "I was very small."  
 
He was always tired and needing to use the bathroom and he complained about stomach pain.
 
 "I kept a notebook of when he was having problems," his mother Allison Nelson said. "What that looked like. How often he was using the bathroom."
 
Eventually when he was eight years old, Carter was diagnosed with Crohn's disease and had inflammation of his digestive tract.
 
"There were times I would hold him on my lap and they would take vial after vial of blood work and he would scream," his mother said. "And it was very hard watch your eight year old go through that."
 
 
"We have a lot of children in the Charlotte area, too, that have been diagnosed," said Haley Buchanan, with the Carolinas Chapter of Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. "Some are as young as two and three that have been diagnosed."
 
 
That's why the Carolinas Chapter of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation selected Carter as this year's Honored Hero for its Take Steps Charlotte walk. Money raised from this weekend's walk will go to research and education for both inflammatory bowel diseases.
 
Now at age 14, Carter loves to talk about what he can do with help from medicines and a change in diet.
He has swim team awards, trophies for basketball and soccer and he has skills with a Rubik's Cube.
 
Carter is also working toward a major goal as a Boy Scout before he turns 15.
 
"Right now I'm a Life Scout, which is one step before Eagle," Carter said. "I'm working on that." 
 
The foundation said Carter is a great role model, especially for younger people embarrassed to talk about their disease.
 
The Charlotte Take Steps walk is at 4 p.m. Saturday at Freedom Park.