There is nothing more inspiring to me than real life heroes. Everyday people who take the hand that is dealt with grace and turn it into something of hope for others. May is National Lupus month, something I knew very little about but something Liz Sanders is all too familiar with.
Liz grew up on a small farm in Texas dreaming of being a super model, however life had different plans for her beauty. At 33 years old and a newlywed, she was planning on running a marathon with her new husband when a variety of “symptoms” slowed her down. Two years and many doctors appointments later, Liz was diagnosed with Lupus.
Lupus is an auto-immune disease that produces antibodies that react adversely with certain tissues and organs where the body becomes allergic to itself.
With a move to California, Liz set out in search of a local Lupus support group but couldn’t find one, so she became certified as a support group facilitator. She then started her own group to provide support and education for other lupus patients.
Liz didn’t stop there, in August 2003, she founded a non-profit organization called Center for Lupus Care (CLC). Her mission is to educate the general population about Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (commonly known as SLE or lupus).
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Liz has devoted her life to educating lupus patients and their families. Wanting to offer more than just clinical advice, she has given countless women the vision to see their lupus health challenges as a butterfly experience, a metamorphosis into something different that can still be something beautiful.
“For if in any manner we can stimulate this instinct, new passages are opened for us into nature, the mind flows into and through things hardest and highest, and the metamorphosis is possible.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Liz Sanders has lived the metamorphosis and inspires others to do the same. Charity Matters.
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