My Story: Surviving SMA Syndrome Hi, my name is Tonya Valleau, I’m 21 and was diagnosed with SMA syndrome earlier this year. I’d like to share my journey with you all. Around mid August of 2012 marked the very first time I started getting sick. It was initially a morning sickness, …

My name is Sabina and I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when I was 12, almost 13 years old. It has been about 17 years now. My journey has been very interesting, funny, full of life, painful sometimes (okay very often), and very eventful. It would be nice if I …

From the moment I first began having a monthly menstrual cycle the cramping was always the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life. When I was 15 my mom couldn’t bear to see me doubled over in pain crying on the bathroom floor so she scheduled my first visit …

Life is a Journey I want to be an actor. I want to grow and learn. I want to hit the stage, the screen and make a difference in the world. I want to create. I want to imagine. I want to dream. In September of 2012 I moved to …

At 27 my career was really starting to take off. I was traveling the world while working for an oil company. I had great friends around me with lots of laughs and lots of memories. It was a good life. Then in the middle of 2009, I was diagnosed with …

My story begins when I was 16 years old. I had an ovarian cyst that ruptured in my abdomen. I required an emergency laparascopy surgery. A year later, at the age of 17, I had another ovarian cyst that hadn’t ruptured but needed to be punctured so the fluid could …

My name is Erin and I am 39 years old. I am a wife and mother of two beautiful girls. I was an ordinary woman leading a very ordinary life when in the spring of 2013 my life suddenly changed forever. The onset of symptoms were quite sudden and the …

Hi, I’m Will Kone and I’m 12 years old. I am writing this for my wonderful Warrior mom Gay Kone. The last six years have been a constant battle for her. Her story starts in March of 2007. She was asked to help a team called Making Strides for a …

Hi, my name is Kayla. I am currently 22 years old and at the age of 16 I was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis (IC) after a few years of battling with UTIs. I was wrote off by many doctors as just having a bladder infection, that is until the day …

Hello my name is Latoya. I’m 27 years old. I have stage 4 endometriosis. I have been through five surgeries due to cysts in my ovaries, removal of my appendix, and tubes being cut and burned due to having a hydrosalpinx, which is a distally blocked Fallopian tube filled with serous …