“Will I Ever Feel Normal Again?” How Jenna Lea Faced High School and Vasculitis
Blog “It’s not often in life, especially so early in your life, that you have odd experiences,” Jenna Lea, a rising senior at North Carolina State University, said. “I would call this”–getting diagnosed and living with vasculitis–“an odd experience.” Now, she wants to make the most of it, for herself and the vasculitis community. “I […]
Championing Vasculitis Victories: Art Diaz’s Choice to Advocate
Blog Art Diaz was living a full life in Southern California and rarely got sick. He was fit; a runner. Every few years, he’d force himself to see his primary care doctor, but the doctor would give him a clean bill of health and he’d go on his way for another few years. Art thought […]
VPPRN 6-Month Check-in Forms – Community Dashboard
Blog 6-Month Check-In Forms VPPRN Community Dashboard | January 2023 Take a look below at what we learned from the VPPRN community about FATIGUE, PAIN, FLARES and SYMPTOMS OF VASCULITIS at the January 2023 check-in. What did we learn about FATIGUE and VASCULITIS? We learned that most patients (over 88%) experience some fatigue related to their […]
VF Announces 2023 V-RED Winners
Blog It’s been a year of surprises for our Vasculitis Recognizing Excellence in Diagnosis (V-RED) award program. We have two winners who tied for first place, two winners who received honorable mentions, and this is the first year we’ve had a winner from Germany and Saskatoon, Canada. This is the 10th year that the VF […]
Bestselling Book Series Author Boosts Vasculitis Awareness
Blog How do people become aware of vasculitis? Sometimes it’s a book; sometimes it’s knowing someone who has vasculitis. For Patrick Taylor, MD, New York Times bestselling author of the Irish Country Series books, it was both. In the third book of the Series, An Irish Country Christmas, Mr. Taylor (he dropped his medical title […]
She Came. She Saw. She Loved. Tatum Hopper’s Family Celebrates Her Life
Blog Two months after Tatum Hopper passed away at age 24 from vasculitis, I greeted her parents, Jon and Angie, on Zoom. I had an inkling of their daughter’s spirit. In her obituary, Tatum is likened to “pure sunshine. The kind of sunshine you can bask in…and feel like God is smiling down on you. […]
“Fatherhood is My Driving Force.” Greg Patterson’s Vasculitis Story
Blog Greg Patterson, who describes himself as a “weekend warrior long-distance runner,” was in the middle of the Peachtree 10K Road Race in Atlanta, Georgia, last July when he and his two daughters (who were running with him) stopped momentarily to walk. They had been running the race together for about 10 years and knew […]
A Patient’s Perspective: Roadblocks to Care Must be Addressed
Blog Every morning, Jane would wake up feeling fine. Every afternoon, an intense wave of dizziness would overcome her. She went to a neurologist who diagnosed her with vestibular migraine and sent her home. But the diagnosis never sat well with Jane. The neurologist she had been working with was dismissive; “You’re a woman in […]
Pei-Yu Chen, BS, MS, PhD, Awarded Two-Year Grant Through VF’s Young Investigator’s Award Program
Blog Pei-Yu Chen, BS, MS, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Cardiovascular Medicine, at Yale University, has been awarded a two-year grant through the Vasculitis Foundation’s Young Investigator’s Award Program for her study, “siRNA Nanoparticle Targeting Endothelial Cell TGFβ Signaling Against ANCA-Vasculitis.” The aim is to reveal how large a role TGFβ-mediated EndMT plays as drivers of […]
Loss & Love: Navigating Motherhood with Vasculitis
Blog Annaruth Diller has three children. Fourteen-year-old twin boys, Alan and Blake, and a thirteen-year-old daughter, Cianah. She describes Alan as “creative, kind, and artistic.” Blake is “engineering-minded” (he built his own electric bike) and is “compassionate.” And Cianah? She’s “focused and driven,” dances competitively, and like the rest of Annaruth’s children, she’s creative. When […]