Ella Grace’s Story
The pain Ella Grace was feeling wasn’t just a softball injury. After a juvenile arthritis diagnosis, Ella Grace is learning to work through her pain to achieve her dreams..
In the Spring of 2010, Ella Grace Young joined her very first softball team. After numerous visits to her pediatrician with assumed softball-related pain and swelling, she was sent to rheumatology at Children’s Hospital of Alabama. Ella Grace was then diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic polyarticular arthritis, defined as unknown in origin and affecting five or more joints.
Her team of doctors and support staff went to work quickly. Their medical expertise and administration of today’s best medication have Ella Grace’s arthritis under control and has kept it inactive for years.
Although arthritis is now a part of her daily life, it has not stopped her. She actively serves in her church’s student ministry, studies piano, serves as president of her school’s debate team and is a straight-A student. She loves to attend Camp M.A.S.H. (Make Arthritis Stop Hurting), the annual summer camp for kids with arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
Ella Grace is a huge fan of Alpha Omicron Pi (AOII) sorority, whose philanthropic endeavor is raising awareness and money for arthritis research. Their involvement at the local level is important, and Ella Grace hopes to be an AOII sister one day. She also hopes to become an attorney after college and serve continuously as a counselor at Camp M.A.S.H.