Join us in congratulating Morgan! Morgan has been kind enough to allow us to share her essay on our website for others to see. You can read his essay below: How Scleroderma has changed my life When I was four years old, my mother suddenly became inexplicably and severely ill. Almost overnight, she went from being “the fun mom” and a “social butterfly” with a host of friends, who never sat still, to someone who could barely get out of bed, isolated herself from others, and lived in constant severe pain. Soon after she became ill, she had to stop practicing law because she was unable to concentr ..read more

Join us in congratulating Cierra! Cierra has been kind enough to allow us to share her essay on our website for others to see. You can read her essay below: 10/18/2023 Cierra (Cici) Henderson In the quiet corners of existence, where shadows linger like unwelcome guests, there resides a soul roped in a tango of afflictions. Every day, she navigates the labyrinthine corridors of her broken psyche, juggling the weight of her existence that bears down on her like an unseen anvil pressing upon her shoulders. She sees the world outside her window existing only in grayscale, devoid of the colors and ..read more

Join us in congratulating Grace! Grace has been kind enough to allow us to share her essay on our website for others to see. You can read her essay below: How Scleroderma Changed My Life Grace Gallagher For most young people my age, the one year that they remember most is the year Covid hit, 2020. For me, it was 2019 that will always be burned into my mind. This is when I started noticing hardened, bruise-like spots on my body, specifically on my lower back and left leg. When I showed my mom, she thought they were bruises from gym class or playing outside. Little did we know how much these “b ..read more

Join us in congratulating Adelyn! Adelyn has been kind enough to allow us to share her essay on our website for others to see. You can read her essay below: How has Scleroderma has changed my life? “How did you bruise your chin?”, “Who punched you in the face?”, “What happened there?” are a few of the many questions I receive day after day. I do not blame people for being curious. It is a natural human response to question sights in which we are not familiar with. I hate to stifle their spirit of inquiry with the awkward response of “Oh, it is not a bruise, it is a medical condition called Mor ..read more

Join us in congratulating Tierra! Tierra has been kind enough to allow us to share her essay on our website for others to see. You can read Tierra’s essay below: As a mother of two young children and living with scleroderma for over a decade, I have firsthand experience of the impacts of adversity that can come with not only having Scleroderma but also being female and a person of color. Through the many ups and downs over the years, I have learned the importance of resilience, wellness, faith and perseverance that have helped shape myself, my family and my community for the better. Scleroderm ..read more

Join us in congratulating Halee! Halee has been kind enough to allow us to share her essay on our website for others to see. You can read Halee’s essay below: How Scleroderma Has Changed My Life Death. That is how Scleroderma changed my life. As you read my application, you can see that I am affected by this ailment. I am not dead. Physically, that is. Death is a spectrum. The first time I began dying was in October of 2019. The symptoms arrived on a crisp fall day. At the time, I was big into photography. I dragged my younger sister to the local park so I could take her picture. On our way ho ..read more

Join us in congratulating Makayla! Makayla has been kind enough to allow us to share her essay on our website for others to see. You can read Makayla’s essay below: Overcoming Chronic Illness The soft smells of antiseptic grew stronger as my skinny, fatigued body lay motionless on the white sheets. Cold IV fluids pumped through my veins, and a nasogastric tube transported nutrition to my neglected stomach. Monitors endlessly beeped throughout the long summer nights as my heartbeat dropped well below its average rate. Nurses regularly came in with a myriad of medications for my tiny frame to co ..read more

Join us in congratulating Stephanie! Stephanie has been kind enough to allow us to share her essay on our website for others to see. You can read Stephanie’s essay below: How Scleroderma changed my life “You know, that artist Seal grows patches like yours too”, my mom whispered to me in the fluorescent waiting room. I nodded as if I knew who Seal was, I was twelve. We were sitting in a dermatologist’s office, the name of which I can’t recall, I was too nervous to remember anything. I think about my past appointments, sitting on the zoo-animal print exam table while several student doctors ques ..read more

Join us in congratulating Roxanne! Roxanne has been kind enough to allow us to share her essay on our website for others to see. You can read Roxanne’s essay below: “What’s wrong with your nose?” my Kindergarten best friend asked me. I blinked at her in confusion, not understanding what she meant. Later that day, I arrived home from school and immediately bolted to the bathroom mirror, staring at myself from every angle possible. This was a common question that people ask me. “I don’t know, it’s just like that,” I would respond, ignoring the difficult truth. The truth is that I have been unsym ..read more

Join us in congratulating Grace! Grace has been kind enough to allow us to share her essay on our website for others to see. You can read Grace’s essay below: “Have you tried to wash the dirt off your forehead?” asked my mom from the other room. “Mom, seriously, you’re being ridiculous, I’ve been trying!” came my annoyed reply. An hour of furious scrubbing culminated in our joint decision that I must have a birthmark, or possibly some sort of bizarre sun tan that created the darkened line right down the center of my forehead. I called my mom crazy: that she was being paranoid for dragging me t ..read more