A voice for lupus
By Joyce Peterson
Taylor Hancock describes herself as "a professional talker." As if to prove the point, the full-time college student and part-time radio disc jockey strides to the makeshift podium, with scenic Boston Harbor as her backdrop, and takes the microphone with the poise and energy of a seasoned presidential candidate.
"This is my first time in Boston, and it's really exciting!" The crowd of 300 or so, including many young and middle-aged women, responds with a cheer. "I have lupus. I actually wasn't diagnosed until last year, but I'm sure many of you are in the same boat, where you were sick for years and years and it took forever to get diagnosed."
Taylor is speaking at the Walk to Cure Lupus, an annual fundraiser for the Alliance for Lupus Research (ALR). The word "lupus" is an everyday stand-in for systemic lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune disease with symptoms ranging from a mild skin rash to organ failure.
On this sunny, breezy June day, Taylor's Walk "team" is a family affair. Derry Roopenian, Ph.D., a Jackson Laboratory professor who studies lupus, and who earlier addressed the walkers about the importance of funding research, is here with his wife, Shari, and son, Michael. Also making the trip from Bar Harbor is Taylor's first cousin, Mario Crisalli, a college student who is spending the summer working in Dr. Roopenian's lab.
"I'm sure many of you are aware," Taylor continues, with another sure-fire applause line for this crowd, "that there hasn't been a new FDA-approved lupus drug in 50 years, which is just not acceptable. So with the money you guys raise through the ALR, and Dr. Roopenian's research, we'll get things rolling. Thank you for being out here and have fun!"
