MS proves life-changing, but doesn’t defeat “Patient’ and her family

In 1984, Renee Barnwell was a bright, beautiful college student bound for a career in medicine.

Fast-forward to 2012, she is still bright and beautiful, but Multiple Sclerosis has robbed many of her dreams.

Within the past year, her speech and ability to walk have been affected most.

She is one of the faces behind the upcoming weekend MS Bike Ride in New Bern, which has grown to attract thousands of cyclists raising money for research each year.

MS does not play favorites with its victims. But, in Renee’s case, her own medical background, which includes a graduate degree in biology and a parent in the medical field, has helped.

Her father, Dr. Sidney Barnwell, and her mother Mary, make up the trio of the Barnwell family at home, where they look out their back windows and see CarolinaEast Medical Center.

During her high school years at New Bern High, Renee was a 1977 honor graduate and compiled a sports career as a tennis player.

Today, her father and mother assist her from a couch to a wheel chair, then to another room where she has an exercise bike that she rides daily.

Her speech is slow and deliberate, but she offers encouragement to others, who haven’t dealt with MS for more than three decades.

“Don’t be depressed and sad,” she said slowly, sitting at a table, holding hands with her parents.

Dr. Barnwell said family support is key for those suffering from MS — because it can include 24-hour devotion. He said that groups like the MS Society and a giving community such as New Bern are a great aid to the family caregivers.

Renee went to Davidson College after high school, and while there, began to exhibit some of the MS symptoms — numbness and tingling in the neck and problematic speaking and memory problems. She transferred to ECU after her sophomore year to be closer to home, entering medical school with a goal of being a physician.

Again, MS intervened.

It was 1984 when Renee’s MS diagnosis was finalized during a hospital visit in Winston-Salem. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI, helped diagnose her MS with the images of lesions on her brain.

She didn’t relent in her pursuit of higher education. She went to North Carolina A&T State University, completing graduate work in education and biology in 1988.

Mary Barnwell said her daughter has been an inspiration to her and Dr. Barnwell.

During her time at A&T, Renee drove her own car, used a cane and maneuvered the large campus to attend classes.

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