Eastern Carolina student serves here; life could become a movie By ROBBY LUCKE Staff If you've visited some of Alleghany County's medical facilities this month, you may have noticed a statuesque, winsome young woman working with some local physicians. She is Leslie Smith, a fourth-year medical student at Eastern Carolina University. She is here for her clinical rotation, working with Dr. Maureen Murphy and the other physicians at Alleghany Family Practice. After she graduates next year, Smith hopes to open a clinic in Stokes, near Greenville in the eastern part of the state. Some years ago, she was badly burned and homeless, living on the streets of Raleigh. Her experience helped eventually motivate her to go into medicine and try to make a difference. "The struggles I had as a homeless person trying to get health care was frustrating," she said. "It took me 10 years to recover from something that should have taken me two, because I didn't have insurance." How she got from where she was to where she is — the 180-degree turnaround of her life — has been the subject of articles in magazines such as Woman's World, Guideposts and O (Oprah Winfrey's magazine), as well as a segment on Lifetime television network's "Beyond Chance" program. Major studios like Columbia Tri-Star and Warner Brothers have expressed interest in the movie rights to her story.

Leslie Smith pauses for a photo at Alleghany Family Practice. The medical student has an incredible story to share.

Burned and Homeless

Smith grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa. but has lived in North Carolina for more than 20 years. About 17 years ago, she said, "I was burned from the neck down over 30 percent of my body." The burns — whose scars remain — were the result of a suicide attempt while she was a patient at Dorothea Dix Hospital.

(Somewhat weary of interviews and publicity, Smith preferred not to comment extensively on those circumstances.)

She was treated at the Jaycee Burn Center. "I owe them a lot of money," she said. It was after she was discharged from there that she ended up on the streets for two months. "I couldn't get back to Chapel Hill for the physician there to get my dressings changed," she said.

Then some help and encouragement started to come her way. Sister Helen Wright of Urban Ministries helped her to get services. "Urban Ministries paid for my bus ticket to Chapel Hill three times a week for quite a while," said Smith. The department of social services gave her food vouchers.

"I went to a nursing home because I was getting thin and debilitated because of my injuries," she said. "I stayed there three years."

A vocational rehabilitation agency helped her get an apartment.

From Hard Knock to Med School

Then, she said, "A friend of a friend told somebody about me," and she met Dr. John Drake, chief of molecular genetics at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

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