In October 2018, Lee Yu Chuan was diagnosed with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis after months of shortness of breath and Raynaud’s symptoms. He passed away four months later. Scleroderma United was founded as the Scleroderma and Fibrotic Diseases Foundation (SFDF) in 2019 by his granddaughter, Cosette Wu, a 16-year-old student at the time. After witnessing her grandpa’s battle with scleroderma, she sought to address the lack of support for people like him.