Leslie Hunt
News

The following is a press release:

The Lupus Foundation of America, Inc. congratulates Leslie Hunt, of Chicago, Illinois for making it into the Top 24 finalists on American Idol.

Hunt was diagnosed with lupus at a young age and includes on her American Idol profile that living with the autoimmune disease was the toughest obstacle of her life. Now 24, she has a new passion for life and is taking a proactive approach to overcoming the limitations she experienced while growing up with lupus.

Lupus is a chronic disease where the immune system goes into overdrive, attacking the body's own healthy tissue causing severe inflammation, pain, and tissue damage to various parts of the body. Lupus can lead to organ failure, disability, or death. The Lupus Foundation of America estimates that 1.5 million Americans have lupus. Ninety percent of the people with lupus are women.

On behalf of the millions of Americans who are directly and indirectly affected by lupus, the Lupus Foundation of America extends its best wishes to Leslie Hunt on her journey to become the next American Idol. Her efforts will inspire all who are greatly impacted by lupus and struggle on a daily basis with the debilitating and disabling consequences of the disease.

For Leslie Hunt, making it to the final rounds of American Idol would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Hunt, a 24-year-old Chicagoan, is one of the final 12 women taking the stage on the FOX talent show Wednesday (the final dozen men perform Tuesday, and live eliminations begin Thursday).

A couple of years ago, however, Hunt would not have had the physical stamina to go through the grueling American Idol audition process.

Diagnosed with lupus when she was 7, Hunt says she had a difficult childhood that was spent largely indoors.

“It was really tough,” Hunt said in phone call from Los Angeles, where she’s sharing a room with fellow Chicago-area contestant Gina Glocksen. “When I was a kid, there were a lot of limitations. Just a couple of years ago, a miracle medication made be able to do something like this.”

One side effect of lupus was that it was dangerous for Hunt to be in the sun, but thanks to her new medicine, she’s been able to work as a dog walker for the past couple of years. And she credits the medicine with allowing her to have the stamina to wait in line for six hours at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, where she tried out for Idol.

“Now I’m outside all the time,” said Hunt, who grew up in St. Charles, studied composition and piano at Roosevelt University and has played around Chicago with cover bands and with a group called Mark Twang.

She’d never thought about trying out for American Idol, but a near-death experience while traveling left Hunt with a new passion for life.

“I got a vaccination for yellow fever, and I got deathly ill. I almost died when I was in Rio,” said Hunt, who is engaged and lives on the North Side of Chicago. “Ever since then, it’s this new mentality for me. I’m not going to just rest on my laurels and wait for things to happen to me. I have to take a proactive approach.”

Part of her strategy this Idol season is to pick a genre she shines in, without being too predictable.

“I’m going to be varied within reason. I do feel like I have a niche — I’m not going to be doing the Isley Brothers one minute and Celine Dion the next,” Hunt said. “I’m going to be doing a lot of classic soul, basically.”

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