Rare Illness Didn’t Stop Her College Dream | [College Name] Admission

Suffering from a rare disease that threatened her ability to walk, a young girl was saved at the last minute and, thanks to the help of a dedicated medical team, she was able to continue her journey with resounding academic success.

“It’s really a story where we were lucky to be able to make the diagnosis at the right time. […] She was about to risk losing her walk,” says the D from the outset.^re Cam-Tu Émilie Nguyen, pediatric neurologist at CHU Sainte-Justine.

Myriem Seriai, 11, suffers from spinal muscular atrophy type 3, a rare and difficult to diagnose neurodegenerative disease that affects only 0.00001% of the population.

From the age of 3, her mother gradually noticed that a weakness was developing in Myriem’s legs, which made walking and climbing stairs very difficult. After several tests, the diagnosis was made in 2018, just before the approval in Quebec of a first drug to treat this disease.

“We were so happy, I cried. It’s another life for her,” says her mother, Malika Dalal, still moved.

A resident of the Centre-Sud district of Montreal, she now goes to the CHU Sainte-Justine hospital three times a year to receive injections, in order to maintain her motor function and preserve her daily autonomy.

School above all

Despite the illness and the treatments, Myriem never wanted to put school aside. This year, she even requested that her treatment be moved so that she could be present for her first day of school.

“It was the first time that I received a request of this kind,” underlines the D^re Nguyen, impressed by Myriem’s ability to assert herself and express herself.

Moreover, seeing his good academic results and his love for school, his social worker allowed him to get a scholarship to enter a private school.

Beyond medical advances, it is all the social support that has marked the family’s journey. “Behind the medical prowess, there are also social workers who support families. We often work in the shadows,” explains Anne-Sophie St-Pierre Clément, their social worker.

Thanks to the Jocelyne and Pierre Royer scholarship, Myriem will enter the renowned Regina Assumpta college next fall, which is committed to meeting her physical needs.

Dreams of the future

Although she uses a wheelchair for her long journeys, Myriem can move without assistance over short distances. She also loves swimming.

“I would love to be able to jump and run. But when I’m sad, my mother tells me that the important thing is that I’m lucky to be able to walk,” confides the woman who dreams of becoming a judge later.

With her journey, she wants to inspire other children who have a similar condition. “It’s not because we have a physical disability that we can’t pursue our dreams, that we can’t go further in our studies,” she says.