If you ever need a shot of motivation, just talk to Brian Kilgarif. Brian is raising money for the VF on behalf of his wife, Steph, who was diagnosed with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) in 2002, when she was 16. His goals are to raise vasculitis awareness, and to honor…...
Connection at VF Symposium Eases Isolation of Takayasu’s Arteritis
Loneliness is a common feeling among patients with vasculitis. When you find someone else on a similar path, it can help ease the isolation. That’s what happened to Dedra DeMarco and Devri Velazquez, who met at the 2019 International Vasculitis Symposium in July and discovered they share a lot in…...
Sam and Helen Dodge: Feeling Hope in the Wake of a Vasculitis Diagnosis
Sam Dodge spent much of his working life as an ad cameraman, and he collects antique motion-picture cameras, so it’s not surprising that he thinks in terms of film metaphors. Sam was diagnosed last year with microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), and he describes the experience like this: “Sometimes I feel as…...
Erica Barram – Her Amazing Vasculitis Journey and the Phone Call that Changed Her Life
Thirty-two-year-old Erica Barram was just 22 when she was diagnosed with microscopic polyangiitis. Previously healthy, Erica didn’t know anything about autoimmune diseases until learning she had one. She was completely unaware about how many people have vasculitis. “I was very scared when I was first diagnosed. I was also very…...
Ronnie Saunders – Student Athlete Inspired to Excel by the Vasculitis Foundation’s Victory Over Vasculitis Campaign
For our final Vasculitis Foundation Patient Profile of 2018, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ronnie Saunders, a senior at Wheeling Park High School in Wheeling, West Virginia. Like many of the other young vasculitis patients I’ve met over the past two years working with the Vasculitis Foundation,…...
