Rachel Lea has worked as a VCE Health and Human Development and Food Technology teacher for 20 years in the Victorian Government secondary school system. She has had previous written works published in VCE Biology texts and various Deakin University magazines. Lupus = Lift-Up, Persevere and Use Strength is her first book. She is currently taking an absence from teaching due to her current health battles. She lives in Melbourne's outer-North with her cute rescue cat, Squeak.