by Lauren Flaum
APG of East Central Minnesota/Monticello Times
Despite suffering from a debilitating condition that has weakened her muscles and limited her movement, leaving her wheelchair-bound, Kimberly Mullis leads a full, active and rather busy life as a college student in Minneapolis.
Bubbly and bright, the 20-year-old Otsego native lives in a dorm on the campus of North Central University, a private Christian college, where she studies Bible theology. She loves spending time hanging out with friends, getting coffee and making art.
But while she may sound like your average undergrad, Mullis was born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare hereditary genetic disease in which muscles throughout the body are weakened because nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain stem do not work properly.
“Basically, I was born with pretty weak muscles and my muscles have gotten weaker over time,” she said. “I was never able to walk. I was never able to crawl, I couldn’t roll over. I was never able to walk or stand up on my own.”