How Le Moyne runner Olivia Snell turned her chronic illness into a way to help others

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In 2020, Olivia Snell made a TikTok about a day in her life as a college athlete dealing with a chronic illness — Lupus disease.

In the TikTok, Snell shows her heart medications, which she takes every four hours. She changes her heart monitoring pads. She has breakfast — eggs and high-protein waffles — but the meal often makes her sick. She has to log heart symptoms to bring to cardiologists, who complete ultrasounds on her. She works on the treadmill, even though her doctors don’t allow her to run.

The post has over 59,000 likes on TikTok. Viewers reached out to Snell, she said, telling her the video made them feel less alone with Lupus.

During her four years as a cross-country runner for Le Moyne College, Snell raised awareness for people with chronic illnesses. Snell said she uses running to take something back from the disease that will eventually take everything away from her. In her sophomore year, Snell founded the Chronic Illness Awareness Club, providing a bigger support system to people with conditions like hers.

“Hearing that I’m helping people, and I’ve reached people and touched them and helped them get through things, that’s what keeps me going,” Snell said.

Back in her freshman year of high school, Snell knew she was different. She had started experiencing symptoms of Lupus disease, but it took her multiple doctors to finally get a diagnosis along with several “sister” diseases.

Despite the illness, Snell was still determined to run. She continued to compete in cross-country meets for Greenwich Junior-Senior High School, eventually getting recruited to run for Le Moyne.

“I am not supposed to be a college athlete right now,” Snell said. “Athletics were supposed to be taken from me back in high school.”

Most days are not smooth sailing for Snell. She’ll often throw up after a workout or a race, sometimes nearly passing out.

But Snell has found ways to share about her illnesses, helping others with similar conditions and giving them a place where they feel recognized and supported. A couple times a semester, the club hosts mindfulness meetings, doing activities like goat yoga, pet therapy and meditation.

At meetings, Snell tries to find her “Why?”, or in her case, why she runs. Every time she runs, she’s “taking something back from Lupus,” Snell said.

The club also takes part in Laps for Life, a one-hour track race that helps raise money for a charity to be decided by the club before an event. The goal is to select a new charity every year by doing research on local groups and talking about ideas within the club, and Snell hopes the race will become an annual occurrence.

Santiago Noblin | Presentation Director

Connor Brown, the club’s vice president and Snell’s good friend, could see the positive impact the community and club had on her.

“My favorite part has just definitely been seeing how much life it’s brought to her in terms of just getting to connect with other people with similar experiences,” Brown said.

Brown has asthma, another chronic illness, and said the club has given him a place to be with people that support him. Since creating the club, Snell has worked tirelessly to heighten the awareness surrounding chronic illnesses, Brown said.

“It was pretty much all her from the start and even now, she does a tremendous amount of work for this club,” Brown said. “It’s like her baby.”

With Snell set to graduate this spring, Hailey Beckwith, a current sophomore cross-country runner at Le Moyne, will take over as president. Beckwith is shadowing Snell on the club’s procedures, including planning events and spreading word around campus.

“[Snell’s] story has definitely pushed me to learn more about chronic illness and spread more awareness about it,” Beckwith said.

Snell’s message has already started to spread outside of Le Moyne’s campus. Snell recalled that last year at a championship meet, a parent came up to her and mentioned she’d read Snell’s story online. The woman said she also had Lupus.

“I was left almost in shock, it just felt surreal that people outside my circle knew who I was and were inspired by my story,” Snell said.