Loss of control is one of the most challenging “side effects” of living with a chronic disease like lupus. Not knowing when symptoms will flare. Not knowing if today could land you in the emergency room. Not knowing what comes next.
But 24-year-old lupus advocate and marathon runner Liv Snell is taking control back.
For her, that means getting ready for her third marathon this fall as a member of the Lupus Research Alliance’s Team Life Without Lupus.
“Living with lupus, discomfort is just a given,” she notes “But when I lace my sneakers up to take a run, just like anyone else, I choose to be uncomfortable. That is incredibly empowering.”
Pushing to be Taken Seriously
Even at 15, Liv knew her body and when something wasn’t right. Headaches, nausea, fevers, fatigue, pain, and swollen joints couldn’t be normal. But despite both parents having lupus, her first doctor chalked up these symptoms as signs of an overly emotional teen. After finding a rheumatologist whom she still sees, she was finally diagnosed with lupus as she was going off to college at 18.
Growing up as an athlete, Liv was determined not to let lupus define her – to stay active and push herself. She joined the cross-country team at Le Moyne College, where she found a coach who became an unexpected ally.
“He said, ‘This is a partnership. I’ll teach you about running, and you’re going to teach me about lupus.’”
That partnership helped her thrive throughout college, fueled by the support of her teammates and a shared commitment to reaching ambitious goals.
After graduation, she searched for that same sense of community and purpose. She found it with the Lupus Research Alliance’s Team Life Without Lupus and committed to running the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon. Training was anything but easy. Just a few weeks before, Liv had the COVID-19 virus, barely able to walk. Yet, on race day, she was ready.
“It was so incredible to run again with other people knowing that all 55,000 of them had set the same goal for themselves,” Liv recalled. “When I crossed the finish line, I was in tears with the pride of what each of us had accomplished. We did it!”
Finding Ways to Give Back – and Never Give Up
Liv thought completing her first marathon would be a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. However, it inspired her to set even bigger goals: continue running to support lupus research and pursue a career in healthcare.
“I decided that my perspective and experience of having been a teen with lupus uniquely suited me to help sick children,” Liv said. “It is so rewarding to give back, to be the kind of nurse I would have wanted.”
In the final stretch of nursing school, she trained for the 2025 Honolulu Marathon. Once again, health challenges interfered – landing her in the hospital and making both graduation and race day seem nearly impossible.
But in December 2025, Liv graduated from nursing school, flew to Hawaii, and finished the marathon – all in one week. “I knew I could do it, that I had been able to run one marathon and that I have the physical and mental capacity to do another.”
Today, Liv is a pediatric oncology and hematology nurse training for the 2026 Irish Life Dublin Marathon in Ireland.
Dreaming – and Achieving – the Impossible Dream
Training has taught Liv far more than how to make it through 26.2 miles. It’s changed how she approaches life with lupus.
“It’s going to be hard,” she shared. “You will have days when things are not going well, but that’s good. The bad runs let you know how good the good runs are.
“I don’t have autonomy over lupus from day to day, but running has taught me to do hard things, to do them with joy. If I hadn’t been sick as a kid, I wouldn’t have gotten the incredible feeling of participating in something much larger than myself, of training for and finishing a marathon that impacts a cause so close to me.”
With that same positive perspective, Liv takes great hope and gratitude in working with the Lupus Research Alliance and encourages others to support the organization —pointing to the extraordinary progress happening in lupus research.
“I choose to have hope – and do the work,” she said. “I have hope that there will be a cure, and I am doing my part by increasing public awareness, connecting with others, fundraising for research. Everyone can play a role in making that hope transform the future.”
Learn more about Team Life Without Lupus, and cheer on Liv as she heads to Dublin in October.
Tags: Liv Snell, Community Spotlight, dublin marathon, marathon, Team Life without Lupus, Olivia Snell