About Valarie

I am responsible for the overall executive management of VITFriends, including outreach, chapter development, brand development, strategic planning, fundraising, board development, program oversight and the organizational/team management.

​

My VITILIGO first presented itself in 2001, with a small dot on my left thumb. I questioned my primary care physician, asking....What is this?  Why me?  Finding NO local support group, I reached out and for $25.00 annually I joined Vitiligo Support International (VSI) on December 6, 2002 using the name Vitfriend.

​

Today, this is NO laughing matter. This JOKE is real!  With NO family history, this thing is a mystery.

We have been told that Vitiligo is mainly an autoimmune disorder. but I have heard so many other stories. One theory that I have heard and that we ALL may need to pay attention to is that of too much Antibiotic and Stress in our lives; also, the dangerous ingredents in our foods to preserve the shelf life is a huge problem. Here is a clip from an article I read: High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), tops the list of dangerous food ingredients, is made by treating a large quantity of glucose (a sugar) with an enzyme that changes part of the glucose into a much sweeter fructose. HFCS is cheaper than cane sugar and it is inexpensively produced. So, I ask you to think with me, is there a link to such things as VITILIGO, Cancer, the rise of diabetes?  We NEED to know, we need to be educated....and then, what can we do? 

​

http://www.living-a-healthy-lifestyle.com/dangerous-food-ingredients.html

​

The medical community has stated that vitiligo is caused by the bodies own immune system turning on itself. Also, we should consider our environment - Do we have a problem? As of today, the medical community still has NO definitive answers to our questions as to the #1 cause of VITILIGO....

Here is something to consider - Did you know that Vitiligo can also be found in animals? An interesting thing to note is that record numbers of people are reporting some sign of WHITE PATCHES on different areas of their body, so...have you checked?

​

Because of this website that I created in 2004, my personal VITILIGO circle of friends are from all around the world.   My hope is that folks would question their primary care physicians, question the medical community, elected officials, question their dermatologist, even question the MEDIA (Oprah, Ellen, FOX TV and others) in hopes of bringing attention to this mystery.

Thanks for visiting with us, I hope that you will stop by often.