Take ACTION for Psoriatic Disease 2024 supporting National Psoriasis Foundation
Kaleigh Welch
As a volunteer of NPF, and someone with a lifetime of experience dealing with chronic illness, I am proud to fundraise for this year's Take Action initiative! I am one of 8 million in the United States with psoriatic disease, and your donation improves our lives now and supports NPF in one day finding a cure for psoriatic disease. Please donate today!
Kaleigh Welch
As a volunteer of NPF, and someone with a lifetime of experience dealing with chronic illness, I am proud to fundraise for this year's Take Action initiative! I am one of 8 million in the United States with psoriatic disease, and your donation improves our lives now and supports NPF in one day finding a cure for psoriatic disease. Please donate today!
Take ACTION for Psoriatic Disease
I was diagnosed with severe guttate psoriasis at 18 months old. This is quite rare, and my parents struggled to find a doctor that was willing to treat a patient that came with such a large amount of risk and unknowns. While grappling with the new reality that their toddler now had a lifelong illness, they reached out to NPF and received support. We eventually got the care we needed.
I don't remember getting psoriasis, and so I have essentially lived my entire life with chronic illness. In some ways, this was helpful. As a child, my naturally outgoing and exuberant personality helped me navigate questions and meeting new people with relative ease, since having psoriasis was just the way things had always been for me. I didn't remember a time before psoriasis, and so I didn't go through the emotional and mental processing back then - that would come later as an adult.
My psoriasis had led to many comorbidities, some of which have taken center stage over my psoriasis. I got Crohn's when I was 8. I remember feeling scared and vomiting all the time, and wondering what was wrong with me. Once I started infusions of a biologic, my symptoms were well controlled, and life resumed as normal. In the last 7 years or so, while my psoriasis and Crohn's have been pretty asymptomatic, I have dealt with dyslipidemia, prediabetes, eye issues, anxiety, leukocytoclastic vasculitis and neutrophilic dermatosis. The latter two of these conditions caused blood blisters and open lesions to form on my lower legs along with swelling and pain.
In 2020, I reached out to NPF for help with signing up for a financial assistance program for the medicine I needed, and through that encounter I also found out about volunteering with the One to One Mentor Program. I have been a proud volunteer for NPF since then. As a mentor, I have the privilege of walking alongside those with psoriatic disease by being a person with whom they can share their thoughts, feelings, and concerns without judgement, and provide them with resources and support.
While the cards I have been dealt have brought much pain, tears, and challenges, it has also grown in me resilience, empathy and hope. Those of us with psoriatic disease are brave, strong, and unwilling to be brought down by the difficulties life with chronic illness brings.
Your donation today will support collaborative, transformational research, advocacy efforts, and educational programs that help the more than 8 million people in America living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Investing nearly $34 million in grants and fellowships in recent years, NPF is the leading national nonprofit organization supporting research on psoriatic disease and comorbidities. NPF is committed to ensuring all people have access to affordable, comprehensive, appropriate care and treatment for their disease.
Please donate today!