Honorees
Take Steps Honorees understand first-hand how difficult — and empowering — it can be to live with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. Honored Heroes share their stories to let other patients know they are not alone on their journeys — because no one should face the challenges and uncertainty of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in isolation. Through their stories, Honorees raise awareness of these diseases, raise funds in support of the Foundation’s mission, and inspire hope in those living with IBD.
To nominate a Take Steps Honoree, please contact your local walk staff.
Meet our 2023 Honored Hero
Kailey Seitz
My name is Kailey Seitz, I am 19 years old, and I have ulcerative colitis. I was diagnosed in December of 2017, by Boys Town Pediatric Research Hospital. When I was first diagnosed, we went through many different medications to help get my flare up to calm down, I did numerous labs to check blood levels and to make sure that my body was able to keep up with itself since I am now immunocompromised. I was in remission for about a year and then went back into a serious flare up during my senior year of high school. I went onto my Facebook and found some Ulcerative Colitis/Crohn’s disease support pages and those helped me a lot, since there were other people dealing with the same thing that I had going on. Being able to relate to others and talk to them about different things that were going on during my flare up was a lot of help. I have now been in remission for over a year and a half now and I now get infusions every six weeks to help maintain my colitis and keep flare ups from reoccurring. At first when I had gone into a serious flare up, I didn’t have much hope, but thanks to my wonderful medical team I have been able to maintain a steady life living with colitis. There is hope, and one day I think that we will be able to find a permanent cure to Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease.
