At eleven years old, with a family predisposition to rheumatic illnesses and a bleeding disorder as a child, Kelli contracted Epstein Barr Virus.  By the age of 12, she had been hospitalized a half dozen times with what the doctors believed was juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. She was wheelchair bound, and the disease was spreading.  She was given every medication available to stop the avalanche of symptoms. Additional lab tests revealed that she had systemic lupus, and more medications followed.  

 

Over the last 30 years of living with lupus, Kelli has suffered from multiple organ involvement, blood issues and muscular-skeletal complications, and has been hospitalized dozens of times.

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After attending a lupus support group, she realized what a need there was for lupus patients to know that they are "not alone."  She started listening to the patient needs and realizing what parallels she found. She also noted the pitfalls in our medical institutions that made it difficult to access care and the alarming lack of funding and awareness lupus generated.  After working with various nonprofits, she formed More Than Lupus as a place for those in the lupus community to feel supported, whether they were newly diagnosed or had been living with lupus for decades. 

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Her focus has been, and always will be, to give those living with lupus hope and a voice in a world where many still don't understand lupus, nor take it seriously.  She welcomes you to More Than Lupus and hopes that maybe for the first time, you feel heard, seen, and loved.  Because you are SO MUCH MORE than a sum of everything that is "wrong" with you. You are MORE THAN LUPUS. 

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