Annette Leonard went from being an able-bodied advocate for disability rights to a woman struggling to make it through the day after being diagnosed with a slew of chronic illnesses: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Sjoren’s Syndrome. She thought she’d recover, only to be hit by a cluster of serious, potentially deadly autoimmune diseases.

Now she helps others, through speaking and her only daily podcast to realize that although they may be living with chronic illness, they don’t have to be defined by their diagnosis. Here she describes her journey to accept her new life and as she puts it, finding “wellness in the midst of illness.”