Hello, my name is Francisco J. Castellanos. I am the ISN Support Group Leader for Bogotá, Colombia, the Asociación Colombiana de Esclerodermia (ASCLER) .

I have had morphea scleroderma for about two years, and my diagnosis was confirmed by specialists almost one year ago. I have diverse skin plaques of different sizes. My dermatologist informed me that the type of morfea scleroderma that I have can be associated with lichen sclerosus et atrophicus.

When it was confirmed that I had scleroderma, I tried to seek help from a support group in my country, but surprisingly I did not find any. This motivated me to found ISN’s Colombian Association (ASCLER), which provides help for patients with scleroderma and their families.

Our association has many diverse activities, including monthly meetings with members; workshops and conferences directed by medical specialists; and the Scleroderma Quality-of-Life Program (Programa Esclerodermia con Calidad de Vida). These activities are planned and developed with fundamental goals in mind: to better understand scleroderma and to improve quality of life for patients and their relatives.

My story is published in the wonderful book on scleroderma entitled Voices of Scleroderma Volume 2. The story appears in both Spanish and English. I have also written an article about our organization in Voices of Scleroderma Volume 3(in Spanish).

Feel free to send information to me (via email) regarding disease treatment, quality of life, and other subjects and diseases related to scleroderma. My email address is f-castellanos@sclero.org.