World Lupus Day - May 10th, 2007

I wanted to let people know that this coming Thursday - May 10th - is World Lupus Day. This international event has the goal of increasing lupus awareness so that more people understand this complicated disease. Of course, a little fundraising is always great too. In Canada, our national organization, Lupus Canada, has developed an amazing partnership with a group of doctors and researchers working to find the cure for lupus. This group is called CaNIOS and while I was in Winnipeg I had the opportunity to meet some of these top doctors and experts. It was amazing!! Through this partnership, which is apparently unprecedented in the health charity world, Lupus Canada sends donated funds directly to the doctors and researchers - no middle man, no overhead! It is truly amazing. Having now met the key people working to solve the lupus puzzle, I have great confidence that they will find, not only the cause of lupus, but a cure as well. Please take a moment to learn more about World Lupus Day and about how you can help people living with lupus. If you are inclined to make a donation - there is the opportunity to do that in the link. Thank you!!!!!

Cheers

February Blahs!

I have been dragging my butt for a week now and just can't seem to shake the winter blahs. Truth be told, I do have lupus and that has been making me feel pretty lousy lately, that and the fact that I took a spectacular fall down the stairs last week and somehow managed to bruise my liver and spleen! Who knew!! I guess it's safe to say that I am a mess all around! Oh well, on the upside, which I can always find, it's a great reason to curl up and read so I have been doing a lot of that lately. I have to admit that some of the reading has involved flipping magazine pages (that takes such little effort) but I did finish reading "The Stone Angel" by Margaret Laurence. I have to start reading "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer soon as that is the next one up with my book group. I did read it last year, but will go through it again before our March meeting. I also have a strategy session coming up this week that I have been trying to get ready for. I am on a committee with Lupus Canada and at the moment we are working to grow one of the national campaigns that happens each October. The committee members are mostly in Ontario, with the exception of one member in British Columbia. Up to this point, our planning has happened through conference calls and email, so this will be the first time we are all meeting in person. I am pretty excited and also hopeful that our strategy session will be very productive! I'll have to get that dragging butt in gear before Friday!
Cheers!!