Shannon Boxx and lupus - An anomaly on the field, and an advocate we're so happy to have!
I had the pleasure of hearing Shannon Boxx speak a few years ago at an annual LFA Gala. She was impressive back then, and now with her fourth (and most likely final) Women's World Cup under her belt, she will go down in history as one of soccer's accomplished and admired athletes. That she also has lupus and Sjogren's disease makes her story that much more remarkable!
The following are two great articles about Shannon Boxx, with snippets of her interview below. I love that she's ready to turn her focus to lupus advocacy and awareness. What a fabulous face of lupus! (And the fact that she attended my alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, makes me so proud!)
Here's the article the folks at Healthline sent along for me to post, and here's an Sports Illustrated article that my brother-in-law (also an ND grad) forwarded to me. And here are snippets below:
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“We look normal,” Boxx says, “I seem normal. I don’t look sick. I have a feeling there are probably a lot of people that are like, ‘Oh, she must be done with it’ or ‘It must not be that bad because she’s able to do what she does.’ I don’t want that stigma to be that that’s what lupus is. I want people to look it up and to realize that it is a life-threatening disease and there are people that can barely walk or are having organ failure.”
Though [Boxx's] friends and family have been a huge support, Boxx credits her medication as the main reason she can still compete at the top level. When her prescription ran out last fall and she couldn’t immediately get a refill, “my joint pain was huge. I couldn’t lie down on my right side because my shoulder hurt so bad. I couldn’t open a jar. I couldn’t actually hold on to a fork eating,” she says. “Those little things have nothing to do with being an athlete at that point.”
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Think she'd like a pillfold?! Tell me which design you think I should send Ms. Boxx in the comments, or shoot me an email at sara@despitelupus.com. Here are the options. And Ms. Boxx, if you'd like to tell us yourself which Pillbag design you'd like, feel free!
The following are two great articles about Shannon Boxx, with snippets of her interview below. I love that she's ready to turn her focus to lupus advocacy and awareness. What a fabulous face of lupus! (And the fact that she attended my alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, makes me so proud!)
Here's the article the folks at Healthline sent along for me to post, and here's an Sports Illustrated article that my brother-in-law (also an ND grad) forwarded to me. And here are snippets below:
***
“We look normal,” Boxx says, “I seem normal. I don’t look sick. I have a feeling there are probably a lot of people that are like, ‘Oh, she must be done with it’ or ‘It must not be that bad because she’s able to do what she does.’ I don’t want that stigma to be that that’s what lupus is. I want people to look it up and to realize that it is a life-threatening disease and there are people that can barely walk or are having organ failure.”
Though [Boxx's] friends and family have been a huge support, Boxx credits her medication as the main reason she can still compete at the top level. When her prescription ran out last fall and she couldn’t immediately get a refill, “my joint pain was huge. I couldn’t lie down on my right side because my shoulder hurt so bad. I couldn’t open a jar. I couldn’t actually hold on to a fork eating,” she says. “Those little things have nothing to do with being an athlete at that point.”
***
Think she'd like a pillfold?! Tell me which design you think I should send Ms. Boxx in the comments, or shoot me an email at sara@despitelupus.com. Here are the options. And Ms. Boxx, if you'd like to tell us yourself which Pillbag design you'd like, feel free!
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