Dozens of people turned out to take two laps around Bentley University in Waltham on Saturday, enjoy some gluten-free snacks and raise money to cure Celiac Disease.
The Step Beyond Celiac 5K is especially personal for NBC's "TODAY" show meteorologist Dylan Dreyer. The longtime Boston meteorologist returned to her old stomping grounds Saturday to cut the ribbon and emcee the race with her six-year-old son, Cal, who was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease in May.
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About 1 in a 100 people have celiac disease, which means their small intestine can be damaged if they eat gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye or barley. But many people who have it might not realize it.
“It takes a long time for people to get diagnosed with celiac disease, it can take 8 years and the symptoms are very varied,” Dreyer said. “The first couple of weeks were very overwhelming. I didn’t know anything about celiac, I didn’t know what to do.”
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For anyone else living with the disease, Dreyer has a piece of advice.
“No matter what you’re going through for us its celiac but find your community other people are going through it too because there’s a whole bunch of people who have already gone through this," she said.
The event has raised $170,000 so far. 100% of the proceeds go towards efforts to find the cure.
