Scott Crane sends a text message on his phone while in his Northbrook home. (Sheryl DeVore/Tribune)

A 3-year-old girl was recovering at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in 2009 after a rare virus left her blind.

In a wheelchair due to a rare form of muscular dystrophy, Scott Crane held the girl’s hand and “spoke to her in the kindest, gentlest way,” recalled the girl’s mother, Lorelie Dinou Anderson.

“She responded to him when she wasn’t responding to anyone except us,” the mother said, calling Crane “a person who, to his very core, seeks first to help others rather than himself.”

Crane, 23, has been in and out of the hospital ever since he was a toddler. He’d become very ill and then improve, only to become ill again. Throughout that challenging life, Crane has relied on an intangible inner strength, a positive outlook that has kept him focused on helping others.

He’d always dreamed of becoming a chef, but his situation prevented that. And sometimes he’s unable to eat his favorite foods. But he’s found ways to enjoy cooking through therapy.

“I have this disease, but it will not have me,” Crane has told his parents, Teena and Michael Crane, with whom he lives in Northbrook.

For his tenacity and volunteer activities at the Rehabilitation Institute, Crane has received the  Robert Ross 2011 Illinois Muscular Dystrophy Association Personal Achievement Award. He is among 50 state recipients now eligible for a national award, which will be given later this year.

Just talking for a half hour with Crane affords a glimpse at his upbeat, persevering personality.

He smiles immediately when he wheels into the room. He shakes hands and philosophizes about helping others. He tells a wry joke.

He complains that he has to go to the dentist. He text messages quickly, and finds contact information on his smart phone with ease — luckily his finger muscles have not been affected by the disease.

He tells his dog Twinkie that he cannot eat a human treat because it’s made of chocolate – and canines cannot have chocolate.  Twinkie, however, does get some of Crane’s other homemade creations.

Crane also reminisces with his cooking therapist, Sandy Kaminsky, about the Greek lamb chop dish they recently created together.

Scott Crane gave this plaque to his mother to thank her for believing in him. (Sheryl DeVore/Tribune)

“It was amazing,” he said, with a gleam in his eye.

Many call Crane amazing.

Even when put into hospice care two years ago, he fought to live. Now he’s back at home, creating a cookbook as a charity project. He’s also participating in another charity that puts famous chefs together with people who have special needs and love cooking.

“He’s beaten every odd there is,” said Teena Crane.

When he was 4, Crane began falling and had difficulty running. That’s when he was diagnosed with centronuclear myopathy.

“The disease affects every muscle of his body and it’s now affecting his lungs,” Teena Crane said.

Over the years, some adults and youngsters did not understand his affliction, and by the time he reached junior high school, he was confined to a power wheelchair.

“Scott learned at a very young age that young children often stare at those with disabilities, especially when the person is in a power wheelchair,” said Teena Crane.

Instead of shrinking back,  he began talking to those who stared, trying to make friends with them.

“He taught them that being disabled did not mean that the person should be stared at, ignored or talked about. He wanted them to feel more comfortable with him,” Teena Crane said.

Scott Crane was inducted into the National Honor Society at Glenbrook North High School, where he graduated. He also received a Rotary Club Scholarship and he was instrumental in getting the school to become more accessible to those with handicaps. Then he attended College of Lake County and Oakton Community College, where he was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa, a two-year college honor society. He was determined to lead an active life.

While he was growing up, the Crane family brought him to fancy restaurants and took him to shows.

“We wanted him to do whatever he could,” said Michael Crane.

That’s how he became a foodie. He watches the food channel often, because he always wanted to be a chef. But kitchen heat is not good for him, and the wheelchair makes it difficult to get around in a kitchen. So he got a job at the Corner Bakery Café in Northbrook greeting people, then bringing food to tables via his wheelchair.

“I felt like they were my family,” he said. “I never thought of it as work.”

Michael Krule, the manager, measured Scott’s wheelchair and moved tables around to help him get around. With his wheelchair, Scott pushed high chairs to tables for families with young children. He refilled drinks for customers and brought them their meals, asking them to lift their trays off his wheelchair. Most loved him and helped him earn a special award from Corner Bakery.

But one patron asked Krule to find her another server so she wouldn’t “catch” Scott’s disease. Krule told the woman if she didn’t want Scott to serve her, she could leave. She stayed.

What he found most life-affirming, he said, was when he volunteered at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago on the pediatric floor.

“When the elevator reached the pediatric floor, all my problems washed away,” Scott Crane said. “My mind, body and soul were focused on making the patients happy.”

The young patients had to adapt to new and difficult situations.

“Scott showed them being in a wheelchair is not the end of the world,” said Teena Crane.  “A young girl would only open her eyes when he was in the room. A young man would only eat when Scott was in the room. Scott has a contagious personality of bringing out the good, the positive.”

Scott Crane’s biggest challenge came two years ago when his lungs began to be affected by his disease. He was placed at the Midwest Palliative and Hospice CareCenter in Glenview. He could no longer work, attend school or volunteer.

He became so ill that he could not lift his head from his bed.

“He wasn’t bouncing back like he usually did,” Teena Crane said.

But neither was he giving up. One day while lying in bed at home, a hospice care social worker asked him if there was anything he wanted.

“Cooking therapy,” he quickly answered.

Eileen Considine-Boggins, a graduate of Kendall College culinary school and hospice employee was at the door a half hour later, her arms full of cookbooks.  She visited him regularly, talking about food and cooking. One day he was well enough to begin his therapy.

Scott can cut, chop, mix and stir. Together they cooked coconut chocolate vanilla bean cupcakes witha chocolate ganache filling, grilled sea scallops, filet mignon with Madeira sauce, and grilled asparagus with lemon and toasted pine nuts.

“Scott has ongoing issues with pain and chronic respiratory failure,” Considine-Boggins wrote in a letter recommending him for his recent award. “He also has periods of time where his appetite is severely diminished, as a result of illness. But throughout these challenges, Scott has always found happiness in cooking and sharing a good meal.”

The cooking sessions, said Crane, “help me forget about all the medical issues.” These include having to breathe through special machines.

Conisdine-Boggins, on pregnancy leave, has turned over her job to hospice volunteer Sandy Kaminsky. She said she immediately liked this young man who had a penchant for all things that taste good.

“He’s a chocaholic,” said Kaminsky. Scott agreed, admitting he sometimes uses more chocolate than the recipe suggests.

Scott has found two more ways to express his love for fine cuisine. He’s gathering recipes from family and friends to put into a cookbook, with proceeds going to the Hospice CareCenter. The book will be published this summer.

He also writes a popular food blog with Considine-Boggins and created “In Chef’s Hands — Food Therapy for the Soul” at www.inchefshands.org.

The charity offers cooking experience with famous chefs for those with special needs. He’s working with Chef Rodelio Aglibot, known as the food Buddha, who had a show on TLC network, and Chef Todd Stein, the executive chef of The Florentine at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Chicago.

Aglibot showed Crane how to roll sushi, just as he had shown Ellen DeGeneres on her television show.

“I love Ellen ,” Crane said, but added that his sushi rolling technique was better than hers. Whenever the phone rings, Crane jokes, “It’s Ellen.”

Scott said he keeps his positive attitude by practicing the theory of spoons, which he learned from a young person with a disability.

“Always know how many spoons you are starting with,” he said. “It’s about how to be positive, how to be happy.”