Alicia Truelove has been a registered nurse for 16 years. She’s also a mom of two boys. A few years ago, she started feeling unwell in ways no test could explain. Her labs came back normal. So did everything else. It took about two years, and a long process of ruling out other conditions, before she was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder.
“I count myself as one of the fortunate ones because it took me about two years to receive a diagnosis,” Truelove said. A diagnosis didn’t mean relief. Truelove said she spent about a year in trial and error and went through about six medications while her inflammation markers stayed high. At home, she was running on empty.
“There were times when I would just be apologizing to them,” she said of her kids. “I can’t get off the couch today. Sorry, Mom’s so tired.”
Then her care team tried immunotherapy.
“It came into play when everything else didn’t work,” Truelove said. “Everything completely disappeared overnight. I had never thought that I would get to a point where I would have no symptoms at all.”
Today she’s back to doing everyday activities with her sons.
That’s why she supports Proposition 38, the Immunology Medical Research & Cures Initiative, on California’s November 2026 ballot. Prop 38 is an $8.4 billion bond for immunology research with the potential to prevent and cure cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and other diseases. Funds go only to California nonprofit universities and research institutions, and Californians get a minimum 20% discount on treatments developed under the measure.
For Truelove, the case comes down to research that doesn’t stall halfway.
“Making sure that the funding is continued throughout the entire process without any interruption is really big so we can continue to have options for treatment,” she said.
She thinks about it as a parent, too: “I have two small boys. I don’t know what their futures hold in terms of their health or autoimmune things, but just knowing that I’m investing now for the future of them and for everyone in California, it just pushes me to talk about why Prop 38 is a necessity.”
Learn more at YESon38.com and vote YES on Prop 38.