Introducing LUPUS UK Youth
My name is Chelsea, and I am the new Young People and Family Support Officer at LUPUS UK. I am incredibly excited to take on this role as I have several ideas that I hope will benefit the lupus youth community. I live with lupus myself, having been diagnosed 10 years ago at the age of 14. This experience, I hope, will be beneficial to me in this role as I never had this support growing up with lupus. So, what do I want to do?
I created LUPUS UK Youth to provide a community dedicated to young people with lupus. We are now on Facebook and Instagram, where I spend time creating content for these pages on issues important to our community. It is important to me that I bring real voices into our new pages, which is why I have started asking for people in our community to step forward and share the realities of what it is like to live with lupus as a young person through social media campaigns. I am already so happy that people have sent in amazing videos sharing their stories with me and the wider community.
I am in the middle of creating various resources, upcycling ones we have already and creating new ones. Just some I am making just now are ones on transition from paediatric to adult services, medical gaslighting, and parents’ guide. I absolutely love making content and I am excited to publish these and more very soon.
LUPUS UK currently do an amazing job in having support groups and regional groups. I want to bring more support groups for young people, including more virtual ones, and having the in-person support groups be held more regularly in a rotary basis around different UK cities so more people around the UK have an opportunity to come and meet others with lupus. This was something I never got the chance to do growing up, so I hope this will help our community grow closer together and with each other.
Continuing on from this, I would love for our community to be more involved in events, taking part in them and giving our community a chance to share their stories with the world. I attended the WORD Day event in Liverpool in March, which was amazing as I got to meet others with rheumatic conditions and help with having a LUPUS UK stall. Giving people the confidence to advocate for lupus is a big goal of mine, and I hope I can help people feel like they can share their story and educate other people with the realities of lupus.
I have recently launched a new website for LUPUS UK Youth, where you will see more content dedicated to young people living with lupus and giving them a bigger space for them to share their stories.
I feel extremely lucky that I get to do all these wonderful things to help the lupus community, one that I am so incredibly passionate about. I hope you will come along with me on this journey to do more for LUPUS UK Youth!
Living With Lupus
Manage Your Lupus
Eclipse Light Sensitivity
GP or Consultant Visits
Cost of Living Crisis
Benefits
Prescription Charges
Working with Lupus
Fatigue
Lupus Hairless and Wigs
Travel Insurance
Freedom Insurance
Life Insurance
Diet and Exercise
Lupus and Depression
Lupus In Young People
Family and Friends