Recap LAM and POP Day

Lupus Awareness Month & POP Day Recap

May was Lupus Awareness Month and as you can imagine that is a busy time for us. The Lupus Foundation is committed to many things like advocacy, awareness, research, and education just to name a few. But during the month of May we are particularly eager to share exactly what lupus is and why we fight so hard to raise awareness of it. Lupus, to say the least, is confusing. It’s symptoms can look like other illnesses and therefore is often misdiagnosed. On average it takes 6 years for a patient with lupus to be correctly diagnosed. To raise awareness of that, we hosted a POP Day live broadcast on May 21, 2021 funded by the Ohio Commission on Minority Health! POP stands for Put on Purple and this program reached over 307 constituents. POP Day was more than just spreading awareness, we also held a fundraiser. We asked for $6 or more to represent the six years of wait time many lupus patients have to endure before being diagnosed. Anyone that donated received a purple Lupus Foundation balloon and a safety pin. We asked them to send us pictures and videos of themselves popping their balloons (and not littering the remainders!) while wearing their most purple outfits. We raised almost $300!

May was also a huge educational month for us. We hosted the Spring Virtual Lupus Summit: The Path to Empowerment with physicians from UH hospital and a registered nurse from GSK/Us In Lupus. We had 129 registered participants throughout the state of Ohio. During the summit our professionals discussed new treatment options for lupus and the kidneys, updates on lupus and COVID-19, medication management, and we heard an account from a lupian on her experiences living with lupus. We hosted a Web Talk for Young Lupians ( WTYL) designed for adolescents (ages 8-18) who are affected by lupus and their guardians/loved ones. We also worked with the Cleveland Job Corps as they hosted an in-office educational program to help the staff better understand lupus. This was all to support a co-worker that was recently diagnosed. And on POP Day the Cleveland Job Corps donated over $300 to the LFA, GOC. In our efforts to raise awareness and transparency during the month of May we shared a daily fact about different aspects of lupus. 31 in total for every day of the month!

And we didn’t stop there! On May 14, 2021 we lit up Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland purple for lupus awareness! Our favorite color! Our constituents have been putting in just as much work into raising lupus awareness this May. Some of our constituents set up Facebook fundraisers to benefit the LFA, GOC in total raising over $9,000.00! Over $7,000.00 of that coming from only one fundraiser, held by Lisa Flemming. We also held Dine to Donate events at 20 restaurants around Ohio where portions of the proceeds went to the LFA, GOC for lupus research. Rochelle Roy, a constituent from Toledo even held her own Lupus Walk in her city. And she raised over $1,600. All in all we raised over $11,000 for lupus! Lupus Awareness Month was a whirlwind of facts, photos, and fun. We want to say thank you to everyone that fundraised, popped a balloon, or raised awareness in any way this month and every month. We will continue to stand together to fight the cruel mystery of lupus.