Help Sarah Laugh at Lupus

Hello! We are Sarah’s friends. We’ve been friends with her since college and we’ve been through a lot together. Sarah can be considered as one of the people who made college fun. She’s known for being witty and funny; didn’t run out of lines that made conversations about school tasks (which can be boring and tiring) fun and light. She’s also a true friend to all of us. She’s the type of friend who would tell you bluntly yet privately that you look like a mess and not get offended because you trust her enough. She’s the type of friend you exchange curses with just because it was fun. She’s the type of friend you would share one set of earphones together just so you can jam to songs from Eminem, Pussycat Dolls, to Parokya ni Edgar. She’s the type of friend who would gladly give you a tissue roll and water-filled dipper when you find out the toilet’s flush is broken. *wink* For most people, Sarah appeared fun, smart, true, and lively. We graduated college in 2009 and a lot has changed since then. We used to attend birthday parties or quick drinking sessions. But now, we go to weddings or baptisms. We used to just worry about school requirements and which restaurants to eat in. Now, we worry about bills, careers, and if we’re going in the right direction or not; we worry about how to survive life, basically.

Sarah also changed.

She has been diagnosed with Lupus. Lupus is an autoimmune disease caused by problems in the body's immune system, which can be mild or threatening. People who have lupus are prone to other diseases since the body’s immune system (the one responsible for protecting our body from disease-causing organisms or substances) is primarily affected. In Sarah’s case, her life for the past few months regularly involves being confined in the hospital and taking plenty of drugs and medications every day. Because of lupus, she has had episodes of having an inflamed liver or gallbladder, difficulty in walking because the warm weather affected her hip bones (we can’t really understand the science behind it but yep the heat makes her bones brittle), hair and weight loss due to steroids, and fever almost every day because of complications in the liver and/gallbladder which was further caused by the many drugs and medications she takes in. The symptoms can be controlled with medication but sadly, there is no cure for lupus. We can’t imagine the stress that Sarah and her family is facing. Aside from the fact that symptoms of lupus are unpredictable (we would never know which organ would get affected by it), the bills expected from doctors’ professional fees, hospital fees, maintenance medicines, and laboratory test fees would undoubtedly pile up as well. Everyday is a battle for Sarah but we admire her for keeping her hopes up.

Sarah is the eldest of three children and they have a single and hardworking mom. Sarah’s father passed away when they were still very young. Though her siblings are already working, the finances needed for Sarah is still too much for the family’s capacity. We are sure that Sarah’s family is with her in this fight and we would like to let her feel that her friends are with her as well. As her friends, this is our way to finally help her. We want to do this because she deserves nothing less. We would like to keep her and see her regain her strength. She still has a lot of events and gatherings to attend to, a master’s degree to finish, and dreams to fulfill for herself and for her family. So here we are, asking for your help.

We know that times can get too hard for her – emotionally, spiritually, physically, and financially, yet we seldom see her fret and we think highly of her for that. To Sarah’s friends, family, neighbors, educators, classmates, batch mates, anyone who might have known her personally, or if you are just someone who happened to come across this page but knows how we feel, we are knocking in your generous hearts to allow us to help our dear friend, Sarah.