I just read a post by Verdicries that today is Fibromylagia Awareness Day. It got me thinking, "I have heard of Awareness Days for various disesaes. but what is one suppossed to do on Awareness Days to bring attn to the cause?" I mean, I know we are suppossed to start by thinking about ourselves and then talk about it to other people. Also, if we have shirts for the cause, we should wear them with pride on those days. But, other than that, is there anything else that we should be doing?
That lead me to think about how to reach people that might have a given disease (like IC), and be looking for answers, not realizing what they have. (Like most of us did, when we went wandering from Dr. to Dr. for years.) Then, I realized that lots of large companies and lots of cities have Health Fairs and Health Expos!!!
I know my husband works for our city and the City always has one every year. Our local hopsitals also each have one a year. At these, they always take blood to screen for high cholesterol, they take blood pressure, and screen for some things. They also have pamphlets and information about all sorts of things from excersize, nutrition, obesity, and so on! Those places would be the PERFECT places to get information out about IC and Fibro (and any other diseases or syndromes) you have and want to educate the public about.
All we'd have to do is contact the coordinator and ask to set up a table there. We could have food on our table, you know, little samples of the IC Diet. We could have brochures and pamplets on IC. IC Ribbons could be given away. Think of all the people we could reach to educate about it and how many may actually HAVE IC (or Fibro or other diseases), and not even know it! Having food there, we'd have the most popular booth too!
I am just thinking out loud here, and if it is stupid or not doable, then tell me what part and why. I dont know. This could be a really good idea, or a really bad one. So, what do you think?
Lastly,(in my town anyway), these events are usually covered by the local media. The newspapers and TV stations always show up and show a little clip. If we each did these on our towns, think of how much exposure we could bring to IC!
We could also have the Questionairre there that screens for IC. (I think it is called the PFT. Is that right?) I just think we could reach alot of people. And think about it, anyone who goes to a health fair is interested in hearing about health stuff, so it isnt like we are just "treeing" someone that doesnt want to hear about it and prattling on! We would only be discussing it with people who approached out booth to ask quiestions, (and eat our IC food.
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Thoughts???
That lead me to think about how to reach people that might have a given disease (like IC), and be looking for answers, not realizing what they have. (Like most of us did, when we went wandering from Dr. to Dr. for years.) Then, I realized that lots of large companies and lots of cities have Health Fairs and Health Expos!!!

All we'd have to do is contact the coordinator and ask to set up a table there. We could have food on our table, you know, little samples of the IC Diet. We could have brochures and pamplets on IC. IC Ribbons could be given away. Think of all the people we could reach to educate about it and how many may actually HAVE IC (or Fibro or other diseases), and not even know it! Having food there, we'd have the most popular booth too!
I am just thinking out loud here, and if it is stupid or not doable, then tell me what part and why. I dont know. This could be a really good idea, or a really bad one. So, what do you think?
Lastly,(in my town anyway), these events are usually covered by the local media. The newspapers and TV stations always show up and show a little clip. If we each did these on our towns, think of how much exposure we could bring to IC!
We could also have the Questionairre there that screens for IC. (I think it is called the PFT. Is that right?) I just think we could reach alot of people. And think about it, anyone who goes to a health fair is interested in hearing about health stuff, so it isnt like we are just "treeing" someone that doesnt want to hear about it and prattling on! We would only be discussing it with people who approached out booth to ask quiestions, (and eat our IC food.

Thoughts???
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