Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Brown University medical student who has been diagnosed with Crohn's disease will attend President Obama's first address to Congress Tuesday night.

As the guest of U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Lauren Goddard will sit in the Visitor's Gallery of the House of Representatives during the event.

Goddard, 26, whose family lives in West Warwick, graduated in 2005 and was diagnosed shortly thereafter.

"I always took my health care coverage for granted until I was too old to be covered under my mother's health insurance plan," she wrote recently. "At that time I realized how limited my options would be as an individual with a pre-existing condition."

Goddard is a co-leader of Brown's chapter of the American Medical Student Association. She is to graduate from Brown's Warren Alpert Medical School in 2012 and plans to pursue a residency in family medicine or obstetrics and gynecology.

"Unless we fix our broken health care system, reliable, affordable health insurance will too often be out of reach for people like Lauren who live with chronic conditions," said Whitehouse, who features Goddards story on his Health Care Storyboard.

 Tags  Brown University Crohn's disease RI U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse

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