You don’t need a title to make a difference. Here’s how I learned to lead with compassion, starting from my own hospital bed.
One Flame, One Mission, One Movement
How one burning desire can ignite thousands of hearts.
A few years ago, around this same time, I took my first steps into organizing an endometriosis awareness event. I launched my first ENPOWR Endometriosis Awareness Campaign movie screening at a private school here in California, after partnering with and volunteering for the Endometriosis Foundation of America (EndoFound).
I didn’t know then where this journey would lead me. I simply wanted to do something, even something small, that might help another girl understand what so many of us had suffered through without answers.
Looking back today, my heart is filled with gratitude as I see how far ENPOWR has come and how much it continues to accomplish.
The flame that was lit years ago has never gone out. It is burning even brighter.
I think about how Endofound began, Dr. Tamer Seckin and Padma Lakshmi joined forces to build a movement that would give a voice to women suffering from endometriosis. What began as a vision has grown into a mission that continues to reach young girls, college students, families, and communities.
Through ENPOWR, educational materials and resources continue to be developed, giving young women the knowledge and awareness that many of us never had growing up.
To all the volunteers, educators, and advocates who have carried this mission forward, thank you. Your labor is not in vain.
I am also reminded of Dr. Camran Nezhat, personal story How he began and how EndoMarch started. His determination to find better treatments and ultimately a cure for endometriosis was inspired by seeing his own mother suffer.
Imagine that. One son’s pain from watching his mother suffer became a burning desire to help countless women.
Sometimes, it takes one person’s suffering to awaken a purpose that can change thousands of lives.
And then there is someone very dear to my heart, my personal hero, Dr. Karli Goldstein.
She founded ESSE Care Surgery and Wellness Center with a vision to provide more personalized care for women with endometriosis. But what makes her especially inspiring to me is that she, too, knows what it means to suffer from this disease.
Despite her own struggles, she continues to dedicate her life to helping other women. She was one of the people who helped me realize that I, too, could do something. She is truly an amazing EndoSister.
My new friend, supporter and scientific counsel Dr Assia Stepanian, founder of Academia of Woman’s Health and Endoscopic Surgery, who brings and pours in so much inspiration and wisdom.
Meeting Dr Hana Kahleova the Clinical Research Director of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine who introduced me to Dr Neal Barnard whose ongoing research has become obviously essential to woman’s health.
I believe God used all of them in a very special way in my life.
When i was invited me to partner with Endofound/EnpoWR team, something stirred in my heart. I began to see that perhaps my own years of suffering were not meant to end with my healing alone.
Perhaps God could use those painful experiences to help someone else.
For so many years, I had lived with endometriosis, searching for answers, enduring pain, and wondering why I had to go through so much.
I know what it feels like to suffer without understanding what is happening to your own body. I know the frustration of searching for someone who will listen, someone who understands, someone who can help.
And I know what it means when you finally find that person.
As endometriosis advocacy became part of my everyday life, something began to trouble my heart.
I saw dedicated surgeons, researchers, and specialists working tirelessly to help women with this disease. Yet at the same time, I encountered women who were still suffering in silence, desperately searching for answers, not knowing where to go or whom to trust.
There was a gap. A painful gap between the women who needed help and the specialists who could help them.
I kept asking myself, How can we bring them together? How can we reach those women who feel forgotten, frightened, and alone?
I could not simply look away because I had once been one of them.
And that is how the Endometriosis International Support Network (EISN) was born.
Not because I had all the answers. Not because I had all the resources. But because I saw a need, and I could no longer ignore it.
I wanted to build a bridge.
A bridge between women who are suffering and the experts who can help them.
A bridge between confusion and understanding, between fear and hope, between isolation and a community that cares.
I wanted every woman struggling in the darkness to know that someone sees her, someone cares, and someone is willing to walk beside her.
Sometimes, all a suffering woman needs is someone to hold her hand and say, “You are not alone. There is hope. Let me help you find the way.”
That is the heart behind EISN.
And as I reflect on this journey, I realize something beautiful.
It started with people who refused to remain silent in the face of suffering. One person had a vision. Another answered the call. Another joined the mission. And another carried the light forward.
Today, thousands of advocates around the world are speaking up, educating communities, organizing projects, and empowering women. Millions are becoming more aware of endometriosis.
And yet, we have barely begun.
There are still young girls missing school because of unbearable menstrual pain. There are still women being told that their suffering is normal. There are still families who do not understand this disease, and women who spend years searching for proper care.
Until every girl is educated, until every woman is heard, and until those who suffer can find the help they need, our work is not finished.
I do not know how far God will take this mission or how many lives EISN will be able to reach. But I know that He has placed this burden in my heart for a reason.
I am grateful for every person He has brought into my life, for every hand that has helped, every voice that has spoken, and every heart that has refused to give up.
I am only one person. I cannot do everything. But I can do something.
And so can you.
One candle may seem small, but it can light another, and another, until what began as a tiny spark becomes an unquenchable flame.
That is my prayer for this work.
May we never grow weary of doing good. May we never lose compassion for those who are suffering. And may we never forget why we started.
Because behind every awareness campaign, every research project, every support group, and every advocacy effort is a real woman, a real girl, a real life waiting for hope.
We are only getting started.
Let us keep the flame burning. ❤️
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” — Galatians 6:9 (NKJV)
