Taylor de Boer is a rising star in the collegiate volleyball world. A six-foot-four outside hitter from Kelowna, British Columbia, Taylor was first introduced to volleyball in grade seven and immediately fell in love with the sport. Her parents have always been her biggest fans and have supported her throughout her entire volleyball career. In November of 2022, Taylor signed to continue her volleyball career at the University of Illinois with the hopes of making an immediate impact as a true freshman.
To nobody’s surprise, and just as she had planned, Taylor’s performance during the offseason secured her a spot in the rotation. As a freshman playing premiere Division 1 volleyball, she’d finally be able to prove to her two brothers that she is, in-fact, the best athlete in the family.
That’s where things stopped going as planned.
In June of this year, Taylor started having recurring issues that she couldn’t kick and her doctors struggled to diagnose. What started as a minor sinus infection quickly evolved into persistent fatigue, joint pain, and a feeling that “something major was wrong,” remembers de Boer.
After multiple ER visits and weeks of misled diagnoses, Taylor was diagnosed with ANCA vasculitis, a rare autoimmune disease.
Read Taylor’s full story here.
