"My disease does not define me"

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.