BROWNWOOD, Texas – Balancing schoolwork and practices are difficult for any college athlete.
Baylee Burns is one such person. On top of this, she also has to deal with the challenges associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), known in short as "lupus".
Burns was diagnosed at the age of 15. Lupus is when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues and organs throughout the body. Symptoms include extreme fatigue, joint pain, headaches, and much more.
Baylee struggled getting used to the new way of life. She also missed a lot of opportunities and experiences because of the physical toll lupus accounted for. She went from being an overly healthy person and never getting sick to taking ten different medications and receiving infusions.
"Physically I had to relearn to trust my body," Burns recalled. "It was very hard dealing with side effects of medication."
Because of the newfound diagnosis, Baylee quit competing athletically, thinking she had played her last match of volleyball. Searching for colleges came easy after hearing about Howard Payne University through a friend. Burns went on a visit, paying attention to all the opportunities Howard Payne provides, and she took the chance to go to a volleyball camp. There, the coaches extended an offer to have Burns play for the volleyball team.
"The coaches there gave me a hope to play again and have a future as an athlete," Baylee
This year, Burns serves as one of two liberos in her final season of volleyball. She has played all four years with the volleyball team and has also joined the beach volleyball program, which is entering their second season. With the team under new leadership, the Lady Jackets compete with a tenacity that Baylee has never seen before.
"Our competitiveness on the court, the respect we have for one another, and the family-like atmosphere isn't like any other team I've ever been on," Burns said. "It's so different, and I feel that it's rare to have a team like that."
According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, five million people in the world having some form of Lupus and 8% of the United States population having a chronic autoimmune condition, and Baylee wants to raise awareness to those affected. Known as the silent disease, Lupus can be affecting those all around, but you would never guess. Baylee wants everyone to be kind to one another.
"I hope people learn more about what Lupus is and to bring awareness to autoimmune diseases and chronic illnesses as a whole," Baylee shared. "I want to bring awareness to just being kind to everyone. You never know what someone is going through… so just the simple act of saying hi or smiling at someone can change their whole day."
Baylee's story represents a testimony to not only her endurance but to Christian fraternity and the values of the Howard Payne community.
COMING UP: Catch Baylee and the rest of the Howard Payne women's volleyball team as they compete for an American Southwest Conference championship next Thursday, November 12. The Yellow Jackets open up tournament play against Schreiner on the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor's campus.
