A Calling to Care

As a child, Cait Joseph was always happiest in motion and in connection with others.

She spent her early years climbing trees, backpacking with the Girl Scouts, and greeting nearly everyone she encountered. In high school, Cait — standing 6-foot-4-inches — threw herself into volleyball. Soon there were club teams, recruiting camps, and conversations with college coaches.

But beneath the surface, another story was quietly unfolding.

On their own, Cait’s health issues did not seem alarming. She developed unusual rashes. Common illnesses lingered longer than expected. Around age 9, the fainting began. Then another symptom would emerge, only to fade again.

"There were always these little things," Cait’s mom, Allison recalls. "We just handled them one at a time. Looking back, you can see they were breadcrumbs. We just had no idea where they were leading."

Things came into sharper focus when, at age 11, Cait passed out while riding her bike to school. A teacher driving behind her recognized what had happened and pulled into traffic, shielding Cait from oncoming cars until she regained consciousness.

"Every time something happened, I'd deal with it and keep moving," Cait says. "I just wanted to keep living my life."

Life Interrupted

By the time Cait reached high school, the symptoms that had quietly followed her through childhood became impossible to ignore. Her body had become increasingly unpredictable. She fainted without warning. Severe allergic reactions sent her to the emergency room. Eventually even eating became painful.

Still, Cait kept moving forward. She poured herself into volleyball and friendships, determined to hold onto the life she loved. But during her senior year, a volleyball injury required surgery. A second injury required another surgery — which was followed by devastating news: She would never play volleyball again. Before she had time to grieve that loss, COVID arrived, abruptly ending her senior year and shrinking Cait's world even further.

As the months passed, Cait's health continued to decline. Trips to the emergency room became routine, offering temporary relief before the cycle began again. Local physicians in Sacramento had exhausted many of the available options, leaving Cait’s family searching for a team that could step back and consider the whole picture.

That search brought the family to UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, where specialists across gastroenterology, neurology, cardiology, pain medicine and other disciplines worked together, to understand a complex condition that crossed traditional boundaries of care.

"We never stopped looking," recalls pediatric gastroenterologist Yvette Wild, MD. "Every answer led to another question, but we never stopped looking for ways to help Cait live the life she wanted."

Meanwhile, the people caring for Cait made sure that the life inside those walls remained full. Nurses came to her room after long shifts simply to sit and talk. Child life specialists found opportunities to celebrate Cait’s milestones — her birthday, holidays, even prom. During rounds, conversations with physicians stretched beyond test results to the future Cait still hoped to build.

Before long, Cait became part of the hospital community. She made cards for patients, helped prepare occupational therapy activities for younger patients, and befriended other teenagers on the unit who were struggling with hospitalization.

"By the end of her stay, everyone knew Cait," recalls nurse Devon Farrell. "We used to joke that she was the mayor of the hospital because she remembered everyone's story, and every person who walked into her room left feeling a little better."

Finding Purpose

Today, Cait is building that life.

While her medical challenges remain, she is pursuing a career in nursing, inspired by the care she received at UCSF. "I want to be the kind of nurse who listens and advocates for people the way others did for me," Cait says. She has also found her way back to volleyball — this time as a coach, supporting a young athlete discovering the same joy she once found on the court.

Cait also remains active in the hospital community. She serves on the UCSF Youth Advisory Council, working to improve the patient experience, and helps plan the patient prom and Halloween celebrations — beloved moments that once carried her through her own hospital stay.

In September, Cait was honored at the Dreamfest Concert for UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals with the 2026 Colin Powell Medal of Courage for her resilience, compassion and unwavering commitment to others.

For Allison, the award simply affirms what she has always known about her daughter.

"Illness has taken so much from her," she says. "But it hasn't taken who she is."