Hello friends, family, supporters and those who are just curious,
I’m fully in the throws of organizing our second annual Pajama Day to Find the Common Thread of Autoimmunity. Mark your calendars – March 1st 2013.
It’s exciting. Very very exciting. I’m getting support from directions that I didn’t expect, and I’m trying to get support from people and organizations that I think would benefit in one way or another from getting in on the ground floor. Even if they don’t see it now.
I know that not only will this become an event that people around the globe will be aware of and participate in, but also that we will see a cure for autoimmune disease in our lifetimes. I know that we’re standing on the frontier and this ‘game changer’ will affect all of us in positive ways. I hope with all my hope that my daughter will not have to deal with the ravages of an autoimmune disease, and will do everything in my power to make this hope a reality – not just for my daughter but for all daughters and sons.
We have the foundation of our PJ Day last year, which was so successful that it surprised not only me but my fellow Jasperites. This year I hope to make it bigger. Next year I’d love to have a conference to bring together patients, researchers, doctors and complimentary health care practitioners for a dialogue that will move us closer to finding a common thread and thus a cure.
According to AARDA (www.aarda.org) “research is generally disease-specific and limited in scope. More information-sharing and crossover among research projects on different autoimmune diseases is needed”. Along with raising awareness this is one of our goals here. I have been reading quite a bit and have run into some pioneering work that is looking at all autoimmune disease as a whole which is beyond promising as it is looking at avenues not yet in the mainstream of scientific research. I am very excited to potentially have a destination for the funds we raise, but all in good time.
Right now it’s time to start pulling your old PJ’s from those closets (men I’m talking to you, all of you who have told me that “I don’t own any PJ’s” ) and start thinking about how you can help move this along, because whether you yourself have an autoimmune disease or not doesn’t matter. If we’re successful (when we’re successful) this will reach much farther than just curing AI disease “Understanding how to modulate immune system activity will benefit transplant recipients, cancer patients, AIDS patients and infectious disease patients” (aarda.org) as well as their families, their work places, our health care system and our economy. The quality of life across the board will benefit from this single find.
Stay tuned for information on various events here in Jasper and abroad.
Find The Common Thread Foundation 