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Charlotte Barnett

Lupus Community Advocate Charlotte BarnettCharlotte is 41 years old and is from England. She first started experiencing health problems at the age of 21 when she developed a condition called Pernicious Anemia - a condition where the body cannot absorb vitamin b12. After receiving treatment for this her health returned back to normal and she continued working full time at her job in the travel industry which at the time was her passion.

Two years had passed when she developed glandular fever which completely knocked her off her feet for a few months and even when she returned back to work, she still didn't feel much better. It was really hard having to push through the myriad of symptoms that she was experiencing just to get through each day at work.

This continued and after no real improvement she feared perhaps there was something else causing her poor health so she was constantly making appointments to visit her doctor, but they could not really find anything definitive which was so frustrating for her.

She carried on pushing through the exhaustion until her body gave her no choice as she virtually collapsed at work one day. This meant leaving a job she really enjoyed. It was a scary time and she went into hospital for numerous tests and investigations, but it was yet another 2 years before she finally got her lupus diagnosis!

After trying various medications to control her disease activity she found regular acupuncture to be extremely beneficial which she continues to have.

On her lupus journey she decided that she had been through so much both physically and emotionally that she decided to set up a support group for other lupus sufferers and their careers to try and reach out by sharing experiences with one another and it also being a chance for them to make new friends.

Charlotte's passion has always been in helping others so she finds it a blessing that she can now use her own story to empower and encourage fellow lupus sufferers.

Her interests include meditation, self-improvement, reading and holistic therapies.

Click here to read all of Charlotte's articles on Lupus.net.

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