MANDY

Mandy died from lupus.
Her friend phoned shortly after and said, ‘She spoke of you often.’
I gave her a lift in the Austin Half-ton I had back then. She sat in the front passenger seat, the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, jet black hair, translucent skin like that of an angel (yes, I’ve met one).
Lupus is a difficult disease to diagnose and isn’t always terminal. She hadn’t known she was dying until they told her a week before there was nothing they could do. Her friend said it was a difficult few days but that Mandy’d said the goodbyes she wanted.
I wonder what she might’ve said about me. I’ll never know.

LUPUS

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), also called simply lupus, is a chronic autoimmune condition in which the body creates antibodies, which instead of protecting the body, attack the body's connective tissues.

This causes a variety of symptoms that are different in each person with SLE. The symptoms may flare up intermittently and then become less severe but they rarely disappear completely. There is no way of preventing lupus and no cure.

The precise cause of SLE is not known, but it is not a contagious disease. It can occur at all ages, but is more common in women of child-bearing age, particularly the teens and early twenties. This is significant because one side-effect of lupus is an increased risk of miscarriage. The incidence of SLE in black and Asian women is higher than in white women. Only 10% of lupus patients are male.