Five years ago, when his daughter Cori was 6 years old, rapper Snoop Dogg and wife Shante Broadus noticed a new spot on her face and that she was losing drastic amounts of weight and hair.
Snoop and wife rushed to hospitals around the city, yet no doctor could give them a diagnosis. “I felt helpless,” Snoop tells People Magazine.
“No one could tell me what was wrong,” Shante adds. “They drew tons of blood and said she has old-person cells. They gave her all kinds of [medication]. But she went downhill.”
After months of visiting countless hospitals and speaking with a number of confounded doctors, they finally received Cori’s diagnosis: Lupus. It’s an autoimmune disease that can affect many different body systems, including joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, heart, and lungs. The family struggles with this disease every day of their lives, but it has brought them all closer together.
“She’s the toughest little thing I’ve ever met,” Snoop says of his little girl. “She’s on the honor roll, playing volleyball and softball, living life. She has all this joy. In the beginning lupus was winning. But now Cori is.”
