Sabra Thomas

Sabra is the youngest of three girls. She was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland (USA). Sabra had many different medical issues growing up that initially seemed to be unexplained and random. Luckily, through her mother, Sabra learned and practiced self-advocacy at an early age. After traveling throughout Maryland to different doctors with her mother, Sabra was diagnosed with EDS at age 12. Initially, she was diagnosed with classical EDS, but as she got older, geneticist Howard Levy diagnosed her with hypermobile EDS.

Sabra and her mother continued to research, learn, and advocate about EDS and Sabra’s co-morbidities. Sabra’s desire to learn and advocate allowed her to expand her social circle. Sabra has friends from all different walks of life, friends with diverse experiences and backgrounds. This has helped shape her into the woman she is today. Despite her medical diagnoses and surgeries, Sabra never stopped moving towards personal goals. She was able to graduate from Towson University in 2013 with a degree in Child Psychology. Sabra moved to Alabama in October 2020 and will be buying her first home in 2021.

 It has now been twenty years since Sabra was diagnosed with EDS. Sabra advocates not only for herself, but also for others, daily. She finds this is especially essential as an African-American woman. In her experience, a lot of symptoms and conditions she was later diagnosed with were initially just dismissed or not taken very seriously by medical professionals. At thirty-two, Sabra has learned to validate her concerns, that it is not “all in her head”, and aims to validate the concerns and pains of others around her.

Sabra is honored to be involved with the Community Coalition with like-minded individuals. She hopes to bring more awareness, assistance, and advocacy in 2021 with this community. Sabra knows that together, we can dazzle and shine our light of awareness far and wide.