My girl recently got a scholarship to study medicine at Harvard. I don’t have the words to describe the pure, unadulterated happiness I felt the moment we got the letter. In the moments after, I held her close in my arms, our tears of joy mingling together. In the days and weeks that followed, there were many celebrations with our family and friends. And in time, the immediate exuberance gave way to a feeling of quiet contentment. The day my daughter gets onto that flight to Harvard, I know I can look myself in the mirror and tell myself, without a shadow of doubt, that I’d made it. I’d made it as a single mom. Let’s start from the very beginning. I was happily married to a travel blogger. We were in a relationship for 4 years before getting married. The first year of our marriage went by like a dream. Everything was perfect – almost like a fairytale! Well, everything was perfect up until he developed a drug addiction, somewhere along the way. A drug addiction I learnt about a little too late, and which made him intolerable to live with. So a few months later, I filed for divorce.

It wasn’t that long ago that I was living the dream. The perfect job. The perfect life. Nowhere to go but up. Or so it seemed at the time. So when the nightmare emerged and enveloped my dream life, I never saw it coming. Today, my life is dependent on a machine. I’m living on dialysis. While my friends are out there partying their nights away, I have needles in me constantly purifying and detoxifying my blood. A life on life support really doesn’t feel like much of a life at all.  But let me backup a little and start at the beginning. A few years ago, I was a 32 year old man doing great. I’d just gotten my third promotion and a massive pay rise. I worked hard and partied harder. 30 was definitely the new 20 as far as I was concerned! And then the problems started. First it was blood in my stool. Then it was intense aches and pains near my kidneys. My doctors thought it was an intestinal problem, and treated it as such. Well, they were right about that. What they didn’t figure out at the time was that the root cause of my intestinal problem was an impending kidney failure.

Five years ago, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. For those who don’t know, Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease which affects the small intestine. Gluten is majorly responsible for triggering a negative reaction, wherein the body attacks the tissue lining the small intestine and makes it difficult to absorb nutrients. There are more than 300 symptoms of celiac disease, a serious genetic autoimmune disease, but the most common symptoms are anxiety, bloating or gas, constipation, diarrhea, rashes, weight loss, and fatigue. An estimated 1 in 133 Americans, or about 1% of the population, has celiac disease. A person like me, suffering from Celiac Disease, strictly has to follow a gluten-free diet in order to avoid aggravating the symptoms further. Once I got the diagnosis done, I had to instantly remove all traces of gluten from my diet and my life. The challenges of living a gluten-free life Living a gluten-free lifestyle can be extremely difficult and can be really frustrating at times. Being a foodie, the most difficult part for me is staying away from some of the foods I love eating. Suffering from Celiac disease is a never-ending battle, literally, because once you have celiac disease, it is there for life.

Patient name: Stephen Age: 40 Diagnose: Duodenal ulcer Hi, my name is Stephen. I am a 40 years old bar owner and I have been living with a duodenal ulcer and acidity for over a decade. This is my story. Now, when I say over a decade, I am talking about the time that passed since I was diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer. However, when I look back at my life with the experience that I have now, I realize that I have been experiencing the symptoms of this condition probably since my late teens. I guess that back then I was able to find my way around the disease, never thinking that I would need to see the doctor, or that something could be seriously wrong with my health. That and the symptoms not being severe helped too. But let me back you up a bit on my story. I was a healthy and active child growing up in a normal family and a pretty safe neighborhood. The school was fine and I had some good friends. I cannot remember anything bothering me, especially about my life. I guess it was all that normality that made me seek a kind of an adventure.

Patient name: Sarah Age: 37 Diagnose: breast cancer Hi, my name is Sarah, I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 31. This is my story. It’s funny how people tend to dream about and plan for years ahead like the future is one hundred percent certain. Everything about that future is always promising, bright and positive. After all, no one wishes for bad things. We do worry, though. Most of the time we worry about our children, partners, parents, jobs, money, and many other things, often forgetting about ourselves. Nothing bad could ever happen to us, right? Back in 2012, holiday season, I was feeling very good about myself. I had a good job, two years of marriage behind me, and many plans ahead. My husband and I were trying for a baby for the past year but did not have any success yet. The Christmas was near and we were supposed to visit his family in Greece. I was really looking forward to some warm weather this winter. Now, I was not someone who performed health checks or self-examinations regularly. I thought of myself as being young and fit, and light-years away from any health issues. However, that morning I spoke with my mom on the phone and she told me about her good friends’ daughter-in-law who was diagnosed with breast cancer.