Necton teenager Christopher Vear battles the odds to study at University of East Anglia
A student achieved a lifelong dream this week when he began his course at the University of East Anglia despite suffering from a rare degenerative disease.
Now Christopher Vear, from Necton, is hoping he can help encourage others to achieve their goals as well as raise awareness of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT).
Symptoms of CMT include muscle weakness, numbness in the feet and hands and painful muscle contractions.
Mr Vear, 18, was diagnosed with the hereditary neurological disorder when he was just 18 months old and had been advised it would be difficult to continue with his studies.
However, after receiving an A and two Bs in his A-levels he has begun studying psychology at UEA.
He said: “Going to university meant the world to me. I worked so hard for the whole two years of A-levels and the rest of high school.
“I got quite stressed and I had to work so hard to achieve it.
“CMT is a muscle wasting condition and it affects things like mobility and stamina.
“I have to use a wheelchair at university as with the bags and books it is just too much for me and even then when I get home I am exhausted.
“It has been great to here, I
have really enjoyed getting to meet new people and everyone has been very accommodating towards me.”
Mr Vear used speech recognition software to help him write exams during his time at Dereham Sixth Form College as he is unable to write for long periods of time. Now Mr Vear wants to help others by becoming a special educational needs teacher as well as to let people know about his disease.
Although he sometimes uses a wheelchair he also uses arm and leg braces and it may not always be obvious he is disabled.
He said: “CMT is quite a complex illness. Some people will see me walking around and think there is nothing wrong with me. You don’t need to have any physical symptoms to make you disabled.
“I want to help to raise support and awareness and help future research to find a cure for it, at the moment it is incurable.”
Mr Vear’s father David also has the disease although many of their symptoms are different.
He said: “I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without the support of my mum [Jackie] and dad so I would like to thank them.”
For more information on CMT visit www.cmt.org.uk
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