For our first story of Scleroderma Awareness Month 2022, we’re featuring Farah, who was diagnosed in 2006. “My very first symptoms started when I was about 17 years of age,” Farah says, describing how she noticed “darkening of my knuckles, stiff thighs, and general weakness.”
But her diagnosis didn’t come easily. “I live in Kenya, and after two years of trying every doctor in my country, we traveled to India to seek answers,” Farah says. It was there that she was finally correctly diagnosed with scleroderma.
For Farah, “scleroderma changed everything, from my physical appearance to emotional self. I had to learn to be slow, to move with the pace of my body.” Though she has times when she feels disheartened, she is wholeheartedly committed to advocacy. “I share my scleroderma story on all my [social media] platforms and various media interviews,” Farah says. “I aim to inspire people living with the condition to share their strengths and live their life to the fullest.” This is why she started The Farah Foundation—so that she could advocate for and empower people living with autoimmune and chronic diseases.
She also hopes that bringing more awareness to scleroderma will help with faster diagnoses and advancing research. Farah wants scleroderma to be “discovered in its early stages and treated immediately to avoid further symptoms to start occurring.” She hopes that research will “help with misdiagnosis and avoid the agony patients feel in the beginning of this condition.” #SayScleroderma
