I was diagnosed with lupus when I was 18. I had never heard of Lupus let alone Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and none of my family had been affected by it or even had any knowledge of it, but it was a word that changed my life forever.

My lupus was diagnosed in the 1970’s when little or no information was available to patients. This was followed in subsequent years by further diagnoses of Sjögrens Syndrome, asthma and Antiphospholipid Syndrome — to say nothing of many bouts of illness, hospital admissions and years of fatigue.

In 1966, when I was in High School, I experienced my first symptoms but diagnosis didn't come till 1983! My initial symptoms of aches and pains, coupled with tiredness, were put down to growing pains and the stress of study. As I was too tired to join in the usual teenage social activities I was isolated from my age group. No one understood the difficulty I had just getting the homework done.

I was a dental nurse until things went horribly wrong, not just for me but for my family too. It all started in January 2000. I had a pain in my left foot, at the time I just thought it was from wearing high heels at the Christmas work party! The pain got worse and then, when I woke up one morning, I noticed that the middle finger on my left hand was white. I felt generally unwell and then noticed that another finger was also white.

I was a teenager when I first noticed the symptoms. I had swollen knees, Rashes on my face, back and neck and would slip in and out of depression with erratic moods swings. I thought it was puberty! I was also experiencing recurring headaches, mouth ulcers, swollen knees and aching muscles in my arms and legs.

Jude Clarke is a professional artist and art educator. She has shown her work in curated one-woman and juried group shows in Vernon, Kelowna, Vancouver and Strasbourg, France. Her work is held in private collections in Canada, France and other countries...

I was diagnosed with Lupus (SLE) at the tender age of 18, after two years of severe Raynauds. Naturally I was devastated to discover I had Lupus, as like most people, I had no idea what it actually meant. Reading medical books made the disease sound fatal so I had no idea what my future held.

I had been sick since I was 16 years old, grand mal seizures, arthritic type symptoms in my knees and hands, pneumonia, etc. It was passed off as nothing I was just sick. As I turned to my 20's the migraines started it was passed off by Doctors as "stress related" or "hormone related". Arthritic pain continued.. anti inflammatory were prescribed.

This fantastic poem was written for us by Kendra Agnew when she was 15. Kendra had suffered with SLE from the age of ten. She said "I was reading the website and came across some poetry. I enjoy writing poetry and often express my emotions when I'm ill through poetry".

Kendra sadly passed away aged just 21 in March 2011.

I am 46 now and was diagnosed in 2007 by professor D'Cruz. However, my story began in childhood, so I will try to give you a condensed form of almost 40 years of suffering in one way or another, without boring you to tears...

Imagine strolling along, minding your own business or obediently going about The Father's and BLAM! you're knocked off your feet. Well, that's exactly what happened to me in 2005. One moment I was an extremely busy office manager with no serious medical problems and seemingly the next, my primary care physician was telling me that I had connective tissue disease.

I started noticing my fingers getting stiff; I wasn't too worried at first but was aware that something didn't feel right. I seemed to be very tired in the mornings, which was very unlike me as I'm very much a morning person and I couldn't understand it. I was also getting quite down and would just cry for no reason at all, I kept asking myself why am I feeling like this I've just got engaged I feel so happy with my life it just doesn't add up.