My name is Patty, I am from Colombia and I married to an English man since 1998. I am in my early 30's, I have 2 children, my son Alvaro he is 15 years old and Julie 14 years old (Julie was diagnosed with Lupus June 2001). After Julie was diagnosed with lupus I had so many similar symptoms my GP suggested that I had some more sophisticated blood tests done. When I went to see my GP to have the blood test results, she explained to me that I needed to go to see the lupus specialists but at least I found the answer to so many different questions that I had in the past about my health.

I had known something was wrong for a long time. Having a baby was an energy-draining event in 1993, to be certain, but this fatigue was 'different'. I told my husband that I felt like this was "the beginning of feeling tired for the rest of my life"! Of course, we would shrug it off, because having an infant in our home for the first time seemed to be the obvious explanation for my exhaustion.

On 29th July 1999 I woke up with what I thought was just a headache. I went into work as usual in a bit of a grump because of the pain, which I had never had before and started to plod on. A lot of my work is on a VDU so throughout the day this was making the headache worse. It got to the point that I couldn't keep my eyes focused or hold my head up and I was feeling extremely sick. It became so unbearable I phoned my manager and she told me to go to the doctors and then home.

It’s an odd thing to describe when trying to explain my journey with Lupus. For me, although I was fully diagnosed in 2011 with SLE , the Rheumatologists believe that I had in fact probably had Lupus for about 5-8 years prior to diagnosis.

Sophia Brown was known for her appearance on Big Brother, she sadly passed away aged just 30 in 2012. This was her story: 1989. That’s the year everything changed. The year a seven year old was forced to grow The year I was diagnosed with Lupus.  This is my experience of the disease people have begun to fear but do not know enough about...

She's a Psychologist, Banker, Teacher, Entrepreneur; Chef, Housekeeper, Taxi Driver, Cleaner; Events Manager, Doctor, Friend and a billion other things. She's intelligent, funny, courageous, ambitious, driven and incredibly humble. To me she knows everything and nothing can knock her down. In my eyes, my mum truly is one of the most amazing people in the world.

My best friend and I were in the diner, talking. As usual, it was very late and we were eating French fries with gravy. Like normal girls our age, we spent a lot of time in the diner while in college, and most of the time we spent talking about boys, music or trivial things, that seemed very important at the time...

In answer to the question “How do you feel when you suffer from Lupus?”

Imagine what it feels like when each and every breath hurts
There’s a stabbing in your lungs - it brings a sharp reminder that something is wrong
You can’t sleep at night as you track the fierce pain that travels across your chest, up into your shoulders, neck and arms ……

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all around my body
The wolf was stirring like the hottest hot toddy
My hands and my knees were just not playing ball
And I wasn’t looking forward to Christmas at all...

The Christmas tree was decorated, looking quite stunning
But the wolf was on the prowl, oh so very cunning.
I needed to sleep, I felt so tired
The thought of a Lupus Christmas leaving me totally uninspired.