inside this issue:
University of Maine at Presque Isle Volume 42 Issue 11
Sail Away to the Past! Details on page 15
Western Tales! Details on page 9
Journalism for Northern Maine Visit us at utimes.umpi.edu
APRIL 25, 2014
A Hero in Our Midst Morgan Svitilo CONTRIBUTOR
How do you measure strength? Honestly, it can’t be measured. It’s an attribute that few are born with and even fewer develop. It’s an even harder attribute to hang on to when you have no idea if tomorrow you’re going to be at school or in the hospital. It’s strength that guides the life of Reynold Aurelle Brown. Brown was born in 1979 to Cheryl Lyons, who until three months of age had no idea her son was sick. Lyons stated, “At three months old the doctors told me Rey had Cystic Fibrosis, and that they didn’t think he was going to make it through the night.” Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a disease that is passed genetically from parents to child from a defective gene. Brown had a 25% chance of contracting the disease, and did. It causes a thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs, digestive tract and other parts of his body. The thick mucus causes the lungs to clog up and leads to life-threatening lung infections. It also obstructs the pancreas in a way that stops it from being able to break down and absorb food. Due to all of the parts of his
body it affects, treatment for the disease did not come cheap. Lyons said, “When he was born I had to buy him special formula. It was $100 a week and in 1979 that was a lot.” Her strength as a parent with a child sick from CF poured over into Brown as he grew up. And now as you pass him in the hallway at school or on hole 9 at the golf course, you wouldn’t know he was sick unless he told you. Brown is now 34 years old and a sophomore at University of Maine at Presque Isle majoring in Business Management. He is the MVP for the UMPI Owls Golf Team and also was named to the Highest Honors on the Dean’s List last semester. He is accomplished, to say the least, but what is a day in his life really like? What don’t we see when we pass him in the hallway? Brown explains, “I do my treatment for an hour and then my three medications. Then I do my two inhalers and follow that with flushing my sinuses out. After that I need to take my vitamins, check my blood sugar, and take insulin if needed. Then at some point I need to go to the gym which is followed by yet another treatment before I go to bed.”
How can someone who goes through so much on a daily basis be so positive? Brown’s best friend Pat Mannetho stated, “Reynold’s positivity is something you aren’t going to find in
cellence in everything he does, which is why he has accomplished so much.” It’s hard to believe we have someone on campus that goes through this on a daily basis and holds his
a lot of people. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Reynold get down about his illness.” Brown’s on campus athletic trainer Pat Baker said, “Reynold has a very strong character, and he has a sense of determination that I have not seen in many other people. He strives for ex-
head high through all of it, the good and the bad. “It’s an inconsistent disease,” Brown states. “One day you can feel really good and the next day you feel like crap. Just because you are capable of doing something one day doesn’t
mean you will be able to do that tomorrow.” To say Brown is determined is an understatement; to say he is a hero is an even bigger understatement. Brown is hospitalized at least once a semester and still manages to make the Dean’s List. He puts everyone and everything else above himself, including the golf team. Brown said, “My determination with the illness definitely transferred over to my determination in wanting to be the best I can be at playing golf.” He has been more than an asset to the golf team here at UMPI and his teammates will agree. Mike Balmer said, “To play golf at the level Rey plays, there are many challenges an athlete must undertake both physically and mentally. However, the average golfer is not burdened with the challenge of difficult breathing, hours of daily treatments, and taking medications. Even with everything he goes through, he has always taken the time to discuss ‘my not so important’ challenges.”
See Hero, Page 4