Riley's story
Riley is an amazing 8 year old girl that always seems to have a smile on her face. She loves school, church and has a true passion for Soccer. Riley is very active and loves to run, bike and swim. She and her sister competed in the Davis Kids Triathlon and the Marine Corp Marathon Kids Run in Washington DC.
Riley was diagnosed with UC when she was 5 years old. We had an idea that she had some form of IBD, since her aunt has Crohn’s and we knew what it looked like. Dr. Vargas and UCLA has been great for Riley and our family. He had gotten Riley into a medicated remission with a combination of Prednisone, 6MP and Asacol. We just moved to Colorado and started with Dr. Stathos and he has already had a great impact on Riley.
Throughout the last few years, Riley has never let her disease get her down. She knows that she has UC for a reason...whether it’s to teach other kids that they can persevere through anything, or if she can help other kids at Camp Oasis someday when she's old enough to be a counselor. The Painted Turtle has been a tremendous blessing to our whole family. We were able to meet other families going through similar situations, let loose and have tons of fun, all while making some lifelong friends. Since our move, Riley has been able to reconnect with friends she made at camp at local CCFA events.
Being an Honoree for Team Challenge is right up her alley, and she's looking forward to running with her Dad and teammates during some of their training runs.
A huge thank you to everyone getting involved with Team Challenge to help raise money for camps, treatments, research and God willing, one day...a cure!