Emma Linsley managed to power through fatigue and weight loss, but when her joints started to swell, she and her family knew something was wrong.

"I thought I would have to quit all my sports, and that I wouldn't be able to do all the things I loved," she said. "This is something that's going to play a role in the rest of my life."

In this episode, we look at research from her perspective, as a teenager and young adult navigating the medical system as a patient with a chronic illness.

"I never wanted my illness to define me," said Linsley.

"I made the best of the situation and took the opportunities that it provided me with so that I could grow and achieve my goals instead of using my illness as a reason to not push myself."

That experience shaped her view of medicine, and it's motivated this second-year McGill science undergrad to keep pushing herself in the academic world.