DAILY CHALLENGE
Own the Podium CEO’s daughter battles rare disorder daily en route to becoming a Special Olympian
As Chief Executive Officer of Own the Podium, Anne Merklinger will witness firsthand all the awe-inspiring stories of Canadians competing on the ultimate stage during the Winter Olympics.
Some athletes will triumph over injury. Others will defeat self-gnawing doubt or criticism from the outside. Many will weave tales worthy of inclusion in the next instalment of Chicken Soup for the Soul.
But in truth, Merklinger need look no further than her own Ottawa home for a golden example of victory in the face of the most trying of circumstances.
Meagan Michie, Merklinger’s daughter, suffers from Prader-Willi syndrome. The rare genetic disorder causes a lengthy list of symptoms, including constant hunger.
Meagan, 24, craves food 24 hours a day. Not even a five-course meal will dull her urge to go back for more.
“It’s like an addiction to food,” says Merklinger, a two-time finalist at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and one-time member of the Canadian national swim team.
“She’s never satiated. So we lock the cupboards. We lock the fridge in the house.
“Any time she’s going to a new environment, the people around her need to be aware that she’ll do anything for food … Because she craves food, she’ll go into a theatre and steal food. She’ll go into a grocery store or Shopper’s Drug Mart — she’ll do anything to get food. And she’s so vulnerable.”
Vulnerable in that her IQ is only 55. Vulnerable in that she looks like an adult, but lacks the judgment of an adult. Vulnerable in that no one can tell, from the outside, the hand she has been dealt.
“It’s an invisible disability,” Merklinger says. “Social networking and online activity is very frightening. She has actually engaged online with people and this 52-year-old guy shows up at the door one day.
“I have people who monitor her Facebook. We try to keep her in a safe environment, but we don’t catch everything.”
The doctors told Merklinger and her husband, Don, that Meagan would never ride a bike. She did anyway. The doctors said Meagan would never graduate high school. She did anyway.
In fact, she earned a scholarship to Ottawa’s Algonquin College and finished a two-year program — during a span of four years — in office administration.
“She’s just showing that you
‘Swimming has been her salvation. She brings that same determination to the pool.And because she’s been in there training so much, it’s really helped manage her weight.’ ANNE MERKLINGER On the challenges faced by her daughter, Meagan Michie
can do anything that you put your mind to,” Merklinger says.
The couple enrolled Meagan in private swimming lessons as a young lass.
At eight, she joined a club and started swimming three times a week. As a teenager, they bumped her training regimen up to seven or eight times a week.
Technically, because of the disorder, Meagan is classified as having both a physical and mental disability. For a year, in her late teens, she made the Canadian Paralympic swim team and received federal funding as a carded athlete.
“Swimming has been her salvation,” Merklinger says. “She brings that same determination to the pool. And because she’s been in there training so much, it’s really helped manage her weight.”
Morbid obesity, for people with Prader-Willi syndrome, is understandably common. Meagan is petite and trim at five feet, 100 pounds.
A gifted and tenacious swimmer, she won four gold medals at the 2011 World Special Olympics Summer Games in Athens.
“In the Special Olympics environment, it’s very different,” Merklinger says. “People with intellectual disabilities, they don’t judge each other. Because they have behaviours that are odd, they just accept each other for who they are.”
Most people with Prader-Willi syndrome live in group homes. Meagan lives with her boyfriend in a separate part of the family home.
This summer, she heads to Vancouver to compete in the Canada Special Olympics Summer Games with an eye to qualifying for the 2015 World Special Olympics in Los Angeles.
While Merklinger will cheer loudly during the next 16 days for every Canadian competing in Sochi, she’ll also reflect on her everyday champion back in Ottawa.
“Everything happens for a reason,” she says. “I’m a firm believer in that.
“Meagan has had a tremendous impact on our life and I like to think we’ve had a great impact on her life.”