My name is Colleen Kacedan, and I was diagnosed with JDM at 14 years old. This has been a long five-year journey, and I am proud to say that I am off of steroids and in remission on minimal medication. The picture on the left shows me at the height of my medications in 2018, and the physical impacts of steroids. The picture on the right is me today, five years later,  on minimal medication! It took around a year to get completely off of all forms of prednisone, and I have been trending upward ever since. I am very fortunate that my doctors caught this early and that my skin was attacked and not my muscles. Although I am in remission, this rare disease is incurable and it could always come back. I am looking to raise not only money, but awareness in the continued search to find a cure for this rare disease.