“We are 50 Million” Campaign

The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA) is developing an awareness/fundraising campaign to spotlight autoimmune families; those families where autoimmunity is prevalent and multiple members have an autoimmune disease. We know that autoimmune diseases tend to cluster in families and because of this, the importance of sharing a family history of autoimmunity with your physician is vital. Awareness of autoimmune diseases amongst average Americans continues to lag as less than 13% of Americans can even name an autoimmune disease. The “We are 50 Million” Campaign will ask autoimmune families to share their stories and family photos to put a face and a voice to autoimmune diseases and help AARDA raise the necessary funds to continue to support research, awareness, and patient education. Families will answer the question “how many are you?” The answers will spotlight some of the 50 million Americans who currently live with an autoimmune disease.

Example Submission:

We are the Castle family and we are 10 in 50 million.

“Hello, my name is Sebastian. I come from a large extended family that is rife with autoimmune issues. I myself have multiple sclerosis(MS), my sister has lupus, my grandfather has rheumatoid arthritis, and I have a multitude of cousins, aunts, and uncles who have various other autoimmune diseases. Together we number 10 of the 50 million Americans who live with autoimmune diseases. It amazes me that with all the different autoimmune diseases out there, there is no cure, not for even one of them. These diseases hinder the daily lives of me and others in my family. In fact, our family would be 11 in 50 million if we had not lost my cousin to ITP, an autoimmune disease that affected her blood platelets and caused her untimely death at the age of 26. For this there is no cure? I tell our story to implore you to support the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Associations (AARDA) efforts in funding research, awareness, and patient education. We are autoimmune disease and we need your help.”

To participate in the campaign:

1. Submit a statement of 200 words or less which answers the question, “How many are you? “of 50 million autoimmune disease patients nationwide. If you would rather not identify your family name, you can spotlight your location, “We are a Texas/Dallas family, and we are # in 50 million.”

2. Email your submissions to khurley@aarda.org.

3. Submissions will be used for AARDA’s 2010 Annual Appeal Campaign and ongoing autoimmune awareness projects.

4. All submissions are due by October 29, 2010 at 4:00 p.m. (EST)