Imagine my excitement as the first annual Find the Common Thread Pajama Day for Autoimmune Disease Awareness was held on February 29, 2012 - International Rare Disease Day. My reasoning for this date was two-fold. One was that so many AD's fall under the Rare Disease umbrella (mine included) and there is so little awareness out there about Rare Disease. My thought was that once we get enough awareness out there, we can pull out from Rare Diseases and become our own strong, powerful group. My second reason was that I work best under pressure and having only a couple of months to pull it off would be of benefit to the whole idea. I wrote hundreds of emails to various celebrities, to various organizations, to pajama manufacturers and wholesalers, to anyone I could think of that would be remotely interested in supporting the cause. Most were unanswered but some were and slowly we moved forward. I did get some media coverage before the event, but I knew that it would be after that people would sit up and pay attention, and this would launch us into a whole new world for next year.
The town that I live in is a small Rocky Mountain town of 4500 with over 2,000,000 visitors yearly. We're a tight community. When I got sick I was blown away by the support I got from every corner of our town. I wasn't sure how my idea would fly, but once again, I was blown away by my neighbours and friends. On February 29th, we had a Pajama ski race, a Pajama run with world class ultra-runner Tracy Garneau, we had Pajama Yoga, we had Pajama cross country ski, we had a Pajama Noodle Night, we had a Pajama Fashion and Dance show that was so great - the high school kids that danced were amazing (they only had barely two months to put together the routines as the songs were chosen by my sister and me) and the models were awesome - regular people who put themselves out there for a cause. Local vendors supplied the PJ's for the fashion show without any expectation. Unreal! The night was topped off with PJ parties in various pubs and our local night club. It was a screaming success. As one friend mentioned on Facebook first thing in the morning, "It's like Dr. Seuss downtown". There were a few confused tourists trying to figure out what's going on as they kept getting passed by PJ after PJ after PJ. The townsfolk went to work in their PJ's so we had banks, grocery stores, video stores, our hospital staff, the government employees, train engineers, hotels, restaurants, massage studios, hair salons... it was everywhere, and people were totally into it.
If you would like more info on PJ Day or would like to see photos and videos you can check it out at www.findthecommonthread.com. And here's the editorial from our local newspaper today (March 08, 2012) http://www.fitzhugh.ca/editorial/6052-an-overwhelming-if-not-surprising-success
Let's all play together in our PJ's next year and change the world for the better.
About our Guest Blogger Marta:
My name is Marta and I was diagnosed with Wegener's Granulomatosis (WG) in May of 2010. My struggle to get a diagnosis is very similar to many of your struggles. Being made to feel like a hypochondriac, questioning my own sanity and ability to endure pain and being vindicated with a diagnosis only to find out that there is no cure and the treatment is almost as nasty as the disease itself. Wegener's is one of the rare ones on the list of AD's - 1 in 40,000, so initially it was hard to find anything that would give me hope for the future. Once I got my bearing straight and enough strength to use my fingers on a keyboard, I started my own blog (www.weggiesunite.blogspot.com). I saw the power of the internet in helping unite people with rare afflictions and give them strength and hope. I also decided that because of the lack of information on WG that collecting stories from WG patients (Weggies not Wedgies) and publishing an anthology would be an amazing aid to the newly diagnosed, their families and perhaps even the medical profession.
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