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Recently, our Co-founder and CEO, Victor Bian, sat down with one of the members of our Allay Community members, Regan Gallo, to discuss her life story as an Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patient. Regan took us through the battles she faced fought since she was first diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis at the age of 4. She went on to overcome the various challenges of growing up with IBD, recently graduating from University of Washington here in Seattle WA and starting her career in the technology industry. Regan has been actively involved with the Miss America Organization, and this year she was selected as Miss Pierce County this year. As part of her efforts running for Miss Washington, she is building a social campaign in raising awareness for IBD as well as chronically ill patients. 🌟
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Victor: That's a very big achievement. I'm curious of what made you decide to go into competing in Miss America Program in the first place?
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Victor: That's really cool. How did you communicate your chronic illness with the people around you, especially going into work when you have a lot of these social events? There are things that you tend to stay away from because you are a little bit more aware of your health, and then there are things that you can't do. How did you communicate that information to the folks around you?
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Victor: I'm so glad that you're carrying this mission to impact the others. It's an incredibly inspiring and empowering story. I've always loved the term “chronic illness warriors” because it actually makes you stronger. Even though sometimes [the disease] makes you weak physically, it definitely builds up that mental strength, and Regan is such a good example. So thank you for the time today Regan. We really appreciate appreciated the conversation, had so much fun!
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