OCTOBER IS LUPUS AWARENESS MONTH

October is Lupus Awareness Month …

Lupus Awareness Month takes place during October in the UK every year. It is an important opportunity to raise awareness of the disease amongst the public and medical profession as well as improving the understanding of the impact that lupus can have.

By making people more aware of lupus you can help control its impact. Lupus UK need your help to raise awareness of lupus, its symptoms and the effects it can have on people’s lives this Lupus Awareness Month.

What is Lupus?

It’s an incurable immune system illness, probably genetic in origin and mainly suffered by females. It can affect any part of the body and that’s the danger. Lupus can produce many symptoms and family doctors often fail to recognise it. Meanwhile, a number of major organs can be damaged in an irreversible way. Principally the kidneys and the skin, also the heart, lungs and brain.

The two major symptoms are joint and muscle pain and an extreme tiredness that won’t go away no matter how much you rest.

Rashes, depression, anaemia, feverishness, headaches, possible hair loss and mouth ulcers may all be part of the pattern of lupus.

Noticeably, whilst the two major symptoms are invariably present, people with lupus can differ greatly in their symptoms and how the illness can affect them – life-threatening for a few, very mild for some. Miscarriage, often recurrent, is another unhappy complication of lupus.

In lupus the immune system produces far too many antibodies which, circulating through the bloodstream, cause reactions leading to inflammatory processes anywhere in the body.

There’s far more undiagnosed lupus out there being ‘put up with’ and we have to increase awareness hugely if these people are to be diagnosed and then get some quality back into their lives. Lupus is usually ‘for life’ at present, having an ongoing impact upon the patient and also upon her or his parents, children, friends and colleagues.

You could ‘Adopt a Hospital’ for Lupus Awareness Month and beyond by ordering the Display Stand and Bookmarks for display in your local hospital, rheumatology/lupus clinic. We would encourage you to keep in touch with these locations and ensure that the stand is always on display and there is a sufficient supply of leaflets. Please also try to get some of these boards located in your local shops, libraries, bookstores and any other location. Each board comes with a supply of bookmarks so just stand it up and insert the bookmarks – it just might be a good idea to ask first. To order your supplies, print and return the order form HERE

JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST LUPUS – There are loads of other ways that you can join the fight against lupus this Lupus Awareness Month.

1. If you’d like to take part in or sign up for a FUNDRAISING EVENT such as a Go That Extra Mile sponsored walk or Lunch4Lupus then please take a look at our Fundraising Page for ideas.

2. You could WEAR PURPLE for a day and encourage others to do the same to raise awareness of lupus. We have a range of purple LUPUS UK clothing available HERE.

3. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter and share our posts leading up to and during Lupus Awareness Month.