Hi everyone,

My name is Jessica Bogoyevitch and I am from the beautiful city of Brisbane in Australia.

Q: What was your first involvement with the HAE Youngsters’ Community and why is the community important to you?

J: I first became embraced by the HAEi Youngsters Community in 2017 during the Frankfurt Youngsters Summer Camp

Q: How did you hear about the HAEi Youngsters Community and why did you decide to join it?

J: I first heard about the HAEi Youngsters through my member organisation HAE Australasia back in 2017 when I was given the opportunity to join in on the Frankfurt Youngsters Summer Camp.

Q: What is something interesting about you that will surprise us?

J: I am a massive book worm. I love to enter new worlds where I can fight dragons, become a demigod and travel to distant worlds. It is my favorite little escape.

Q: How are you involved in HAE advocacy in your country?

J: I have been involved in my member organization since I was about 13 years old. I have been fortunate to attend many different meetups and advocacy workshops across the world. My main goal is to be able to get the youngsters across my country and neighboring ones connected and to be able to get them started on their own journey into becoming the best young people they can become.

Q: Is there a special memory/story you would like to share?

J: My favourite memories come from the Youngsters Summer camp I attended in Frankfurt in 2017. For the first time in my life I was surrounded by people who understood what my life was like. I had never meet anyone my age who was like me and I will never forget just being able to be a kid for few days. I could take a breath and just be Jess and not have HAE be what made me different but have it be why I was able to be embraced by a whole community.

Q: Why is this work important for you?

J: This work is so important to me because it gives me a way to use all of my experience. I am fortunate for my HAE to be quite stable now but I was not so lucky as a teenager. I was quite sick and had to learn how to cope in my own ways. If I am able to use everything that I have learned to help even one other youngster in even a small way then those difficulties will have been worth it.

Q: What is your hope for the future of HAE patients in your country and globally?

J: I wish to create a bigger youngster community   particularly in Australia. I want to help connect everyone together and give youngster opportunities they would never have dreamed of.

Tell us something FUN!

Q: If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

J: Any type of pasta.

Q: Tell us 3 fun facts about your country that will surprise us.

J: 1) The Great Barrier reef is the largest reef system on the planet and can even been seen from space.

2) Australia is home to 21 of the world’s 25 most venomous snakes in the world

3) The echidna and the platypus are the only 2 species of monotremes or egg-laying mammals in the world.