![\"HK](\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/newsimg.furman.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/HK-sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe unlikely pair shared their story with Furman students and faculty Friday as part of the Psychology Club\u2019s celebration of Brain Awareness Week.<\/p>\n
William \u201cHK\u201d Derryberry came into the world unexpectedly after a car accident on July 8, 1990, born blind and diagnosed with cerebral palsy and a host of other medical problems.<\/p>\n
He also was born with an extraordinary gift known as hyperthymesia, also known as superior autobiographical memory. One of only about 50 people in the United States with the diagnosis, Derryberry has the ability to remember every event that has happened to him since he was 3 \u00bd years old.<\/p>\n
Researchers at Vanderbilt University hope that studies on HK\u2019s brain may one day lead to treatments for people suffering memory loss.<\/p>\n
Derryberry can remember what the weather was like on a specific day a decade ago. He can tell strangers on which day of the week they were born. He can remember his blood pressure readings every time they\u2019ve been taken. He knows a mind-boggling number of sports statistics, scores of football and basketball teams from years ago.<\/p>\n
As a child, Derryberry\u2019s grandmother was told he\u2019d be confined to a wheelchair. While he isn\u2019t able to play sports like he wants, Derryberry walks independently, has learned how to ride a horse and has even done some snow skiing.<\/p>\n
Thanks to his friend and mentor, Jim Bradford, he was also able to enjoy more of his youth, sharing in many activities with Bradford\u2019s family. \u201cHe let me borrow his eyes,\u201d said Derryberry. \u201cHe would paint word pictures for me. He was proud of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
At one point, Derryberry was told he wouldn\u2019t graduate high school. Again, the naysayers were wrong.<\/p>\n
Derryberry enrolled in Tennessee School for the Blind at age three and was the first person at the school to learn how to read and write Braille with one arm. He earned his high school diploma in May 2013 at the age of 21, one of the first in his immediate family to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only disability any of us have in life is a negative attitude,\u201d Derryberry said. \u201cReach for greater accomplishments\u2026 in your lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
These days, Derryberry and Bradford travel together across the region, sharing their story as motivational speakers. As part of his visit to Furman, Derryberry was also made an honorary member of the Psychology Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has changed my life knowing HK,\u201d Bradford told Furman students. \u201cI show more compassion, more patience with people. Always look for an HK.\u201d<\/p>\n
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