As a young girl, Gabriela Piqueras wasn’t quite like the other children in her class. She couldn’t play with her friends, because any minor bump would cause a large bruise to bloom instantly. She couldn’t get much sun and, as a pre-teen, she spent long stretches of time in the hospital.
At age 7, while living in Madrid, Piqueras was diagnosed with lupus, a confounding and severe autoimmune disease that can be detrimental to many organs, including the kidneys, spleen, heart, and brain.