Community Voices

Co-Founder of Spondylitis Association of America, The first President of the Board of Directors and the first Executive Director In 1983, when I co-founded this organization, there was no information available about AS – not a single…

My AS story began when I was a 19 year old missionary in England, pounding the pavement all day every day...

My memory of that day in 1997 centers around driving home on I-295 in Portland, in the Fore River area; that’s when the words I’d just heard took hold. “You have been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis.”

The slums of Kolkata birthed me. She left me in a clinic abandoned and alone. That is how my life began.

Jeannette Anne Hayes As many others with ankylosing spondylitis, I’ve become passionate about helping raise awareness. It’s my hope (our hope) that future generations will receive early diagnosis and treatment before permanent damage is done to the…

Char My name is Char and I’m a mom of two of the most amazing daughters on the planet, a wife to my best friend and soul mate, a dancer, a personal trainer, a group fitness instructor…