"The only noticeable difference between Hunter Ozmer and her date, Christopher Blixt, 
compared with the other couples decked out head-to-toe for Hidden Valley High School's prom 
Saturday night was that she and Christopher speak more slowly.

The two teenagers have a rare genetic disorder called Niemann-Pick disease. Though it can be a 
hindrance, this spring it helped Hunter find a date for prom.

Hunter, 18, met Christopher in the X-ray department of New York City's Columbia University Hospital.

"And let me tell you, he's a cutie," she said Thursday, two days before Christopher, 19, was 
scheduled to arrive in Roanoke County from his home in the community of Montclair, Va. 
The Washington, D.C., suburb is about four hours away, but the two teenagers never would 
have crossed paths outside of a chance meeting in the university hospital. 

Both are in a trial study for people with Niemann-Pick , the disorder they share with almost 
300 other people in the United States. They have Type C, which means their bodies have trouble 
metabolizing cholesterol. The excessive cholesterol kills cells and eventually breaks down their organs
and muscle control.

It doesn't show up in pictures and to look at them in formal wear gives no sign that this couple 
was unlike a typical prom date.

Hunter's hair was pinned back in curls, her nails manicured and the long black and pink satin dress 
made her look a couple inches taller than her 5-foot-6-inch frame. That was against Christopher's 6 feet 2 inches. 
Finding each other was no small feat, and during prom season, too.

Niemann-Pick is still relatively uncommon. So uncommon that Hunter's mother, Annette, says 
growing up as the only child in the area with the disease was another challenge for Hunter, in addition 
to the symptoms Hunter's playmates could never really understand her illness.

So Christopher was quite a catch. Someone close to Hunter's age, who shares the same symptoms, 
was free the weekend of Hidden Valley's prom and who, as Hunter said, is "a cutie."

But the two don't attribute this date to luck. They say it's friendship.

With disco music grooving from the speaker in Pat and Jack Logan's back yard, more than 35 friends 
and relatives oohed and aahed at the couples as proud parents clicked their cameras repeatedly. Near the 
middle of the 14-couple lineup were Hunter and Christopher.

"Act like teenagers: Do something cute," one parent called out.

The 15 people in the Niemann-Pick study arrive for testing in New York at different times throughout the 
year rather than as a group. This time just happened to overlap for Hunter and Christopher. And it just happened 
also that their fathers had already met through their work with the National Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation. 
They recognized each other immediately.  Hunter and Christopher, not so much.

"I was listening to my CD player," Christopher said. His father, Jerry,  grabbed Christopher's attention 
from the music beating out of his earphones and introduced him to Hunt Ozmer and his daughter Hunter.

Though the two men had spoken often of their children, before that chance encounter in X-ray, 
Hunt says it had not crossed their minds to introduce Hunter and Christopher.

Hunter and Christopher started from square one already knowing a lot about each other's futures. 
Niemann-Pick is a degenerative disease so the symptoms only worsen with time. Though Niemann-Pick 
is a fatal disease, the trial study Hunter and Christopher are in uses medication that may halt
Niemann-Pick's effects. It gives hope.

But tests and medicines were not part of the prom package Saturday night. Pictures, dinner and dancing were. 
Both Hunter and Christopher have done all that before with other people, in different places.

However, the Hotel Roanoke on Saturday was the first prom where they both went face-to-face with their illness and only had fun.