IBD Awareness Week Dec 1-7
It’s heeeeere! Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week
Dec 1-7th
This is the week where Inflammatory Bowel Disease takes the spotlight to make us #IBDVisible.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease advocates are all in our glory this week. The spotlight shines a bit brighter on Crohn’s and Colitis communities, advocacy, and awareness from December 1st – 7th.
To kick off this week I will be participating in an advocacy walk in Washington DC. I’ve been invited by Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America to help raise visibility for our disease and educate members of our congress in Capitol Hill. Starting December 1st I’ll be sharing my day’s experience on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook if you’d like to chime in and see the work in action.
After charming congress into joining the Congressional Crohn’s & Colitis Caucus, we’ll be holding a Facebook live chat on CCFA’s Facebook Page to talk about what it means to be an IBD advocate. Tune in December 1st 8pm EST.
I’m excited to be with CCFA in Washington, D.C. to kickoff Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week and be #IBDvisible! The views shared today are mine and do not represent CCFA’s official position.
2015 IBD Social Circle Summit, photo cred: Erin Scott Photography
Awareness can help in many ways. In the smallest way it can bring patients together. In another way awareness may educate others on our disease. One less person to say, “Oh my sister has IBS too. You should drink aloe and you’ll be better”. Not only can educating others bring awareness to the disease but it can empower us to educate ourselves more as well. Awareness can also mean something big: a future cure.
There’s been a significant rise in research just in the past 20-30 years. Medicine. Informed doctors. Surgical procedures. Overall understanding. IBD community growth. Available resources. Insurance changes. Clinical trials. This didn’t happen on its own. It happens because we speak up. We are involved. We are making ourselves visible.
The bigger our voice the more we are heard. Do you think new treatments, surgeries, ostomy care, naturopaths, etc have evolved because we sit on our hands and kept quiet? Nah, man. We speak up. We ask questions. We get involved. And [un]fortunately, there’s a hell of a lot of us.
So whether your voice is to ask questions or inform others, use it! No worries if you don’t, advocates are working hard to get the word out about living with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis.