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One little person at a time

It’s almost feeling like this is a musical kind of place, but I saw this today and have to share it as I find it so powerful on so many different levels. I find it so cool that a combination of efforts and skills from people around the world that might not even know each other can make such a powerful statement and, yes, change the world for the better. This is exactly what we’re trying to do here, my friends that I know and those that I don’t… we are all in the same boat, trying to row against the same current, looking at the same final destination of a better life not just for us and our families but for millions of other people who will benefit from our success – people who will have no idea that our actions are helping them as we seem so unrelated, but we are….

Here’s the song….

This movement is gaining momentum. Our movement that is. People who had no idea they belong to such a huge group are starting to see the light. I keep reading articles about various autoimmune diseases and at the end of each one there’s the statement “we need more research into this disease”, and it really strikes me how we all have compartmentalized ourselves into little boxes. Imagine if we all stood together and said “we need more research into this disease – autoimmunity” – just imagine how strong and loud our communal voice will be and how the world will have no other option than to listen. With finding a common thread we can free up millions from suffering and free up billions of dollars taken up in the medical systems of the world right now treating chronic illness for other illnesses and medical research for all kinds of other problems. Everyone, EVERYONE, will benefit from a successful campaign here. EVERY ONE!

findthecommonthread Welcome

Together

one in five
one in five

Well, here we are… standing on the edge. These are the first steps to what I hope to become something we can all be proud of one day. I have gone (both mentally and physically) from a significantly small group of Weggies (those special folks sportin’ Wegener’s Granulomatosis, an autoimmune disease affecting the small blood vesels of the body) to one of the largest common group of sufferers from a disease out there – autoimmunity. From a group of one in 30 to 40,000 to a group of 1 in 5. So why isn’t the world standing up and doing something about it? Well, I guess that means it’s up to us.  1 in 5, that’s a lot of us.

First on the agenda, lets wake everyone up to our existence and our strength in numbers. We’ll start with ‘Find the Common Thread Pajama Day’. Ever wanted to wear your PJ’s at work? Well here’s your chance. Talk to your bosses, encourage them to support the movement. Guaranteed they know someone with an autoimmune disorder. Guaranteed. The list of individual diseases that falls under the AI umbrella is longer than your arm. Try having challenges between offices or like businesses to see who can have more PJ’s show up at work, host PJ parties, have PJ fashion shows.

 This year we’ll do it on Rare Disease Day, February 29th 2012 because so many of the individual diseasses fall under ‘Rare Disease’ category, and when the world starts to see us for the mass that we really are we can move it to March 1st in the following years. We’ll wear our PJ’s because so many of us spend days ‘looking normal’ while our bodies are waging a war inside in the privacy of themselves/ourselves. Self against self. Not of our choosing.

Once awareness is out there we can start raising money that will go towards research to help find the common thread.
Only together can we pull this off.