When Deb Claxton was diagnosed with Microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) in 2005, it was the last straw in a series of sad and tragic events that marked her life. Her first husband ran off with a married woman and she learned about it when she came home from work and found half her furniture and possessions missing. Her second husband was verbally abusive. She lost a son that died at birth, and the biggest tragedy in her life was the unexpected death of her 16 year old daughter.

I was fifty six when I started feeling ill, with what I was to learn was Wegener's Granulomatosis Vasculitis. I had always been fit and active, playing badminton the odd game of tennis, gardening and had done the Race for Life for many years. I don't smoke or  drink and I am not  over weight. I had  pain in my hands,  my legs and arms, much worse at bedtime when I could not move.

Flash back to my sophomore year at Venice High School—I was a 15-year-old majorette in the marching band and a French horn player in the concert band. Also, I was a dancer and took guitar and piano lessons. I was having the time of my life until December 2007.

Marcela Serrano was a happily married 34 year old mother of two when she began feeling arthritic pains and eye irritation in 1997. Her doctors in Columbia, South America began treating her for arthritis; however, Marcela’s condition did not improve. As her condition worsened, she was diagnosed with Wegener’s Granulomatosis two years later.