Coping with lupus isn't easy, but Jade Nealious refuses to surrender in her battle with the chronic autoimmune disease.
"I have a motto: Run lupus, don't let it run you," she said. "It may knock me down occasionally, and I've had hospital visits where I was knocking on death's door. But in my mind I think, 'How am I going to get back up and start over?'"
Nealious, who discovered she had lupus as a teenager, founded an organization, Crowning Lupus, to increase awareness about the affliction, to raise money to find a cure and to help her fellow lupus sufferers and their families.
"I've been extremely blessed to have parents that have never allowed me to be a victim and have never allowed me to let this defeat me, and I want to give back," Nealious said.
Crowning Lupus grew out of a successful fundraising campaign for lupus research that Nealious spearheaded in 2013.
"I went to a website, Crowdrise, and made a page," she said. "I asked people to help me reach $1,000, and I ended up getting $3,000 within a month. It was great to raise money to find a cure, but I wanted to do more."
Nealious created the $500 J.E.N. Scholarship, which is named after her sister, Jessica Elaine Nealious, and is for rising or graduating high school seniors.
In addition, she started a $500 endowment for families of lupus sufferers to help them with medical bills and a $500 Warrior Endowment for lupus survivors that they can use to pay for medical bills or for leisure activities that will make their lives more pleasant.
A Crowning Lupus youth endowment will give $200 to the Aiken middle school or high school student that wins a contest to create artwork that will be used on the T-shirts for the organization's second Lupus Strong Walk on May 2 at the H. Odell Weeks Activities Center, 700 Whiskey Road.
"I am also creating a program to grant wishes to children suffering from chronic illness or diseases such as cancer," Nealious said. "Each child will be crowned prince or princess for a day and will be granted one wish such as a vacation or a fun day for their family."
For more information, visit www.crowninglupus.com or the Crowning Lupus page on Facebook.
Dede Biles is a general assignment reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since January 2013. A native of Concord, N.C., she is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.