World Lupus Day (May 10th) – How you can get involved!
World Lupus Day is now just two weeks away. We really want to make sure that this is the biggest World Lupus Day ever and it helps educate more people about lupus and also leads to more funds being raised for the charity.
There are so many ways that you can help to make this day a big success, some are as simple as a couple of clicks on your mouse and some could involve a bit more effort, it all depends on how much you’re able to contribute.
Here are some suggestions;
1. Share the Facebook updates and Tweets posted by LUPUS UK on the day. We’ll be posting facts and information about lupus throughout the day to hopefully teach people something new.
2. Invite a friend to ‘like’ the LUPUS UK Facebook page or ‘Follow’ the LUPUS UK Twitter account. This way they’ll see our posts in the future too.
3. Change your Facebook profile picture to a picture of a butterfly for one day. Post in the caption, “My picture is a butterfly to show support for the 5 million lupus patients throughout the world. You can learn more about lupus by going to lupusuk.org.uk”
4. Contact your favourite celebrities through Twitter and see if they will send a tweet or re-tweet your tweet to help raise awareness on the day.
5. Send an email or text message to 10 people you know who do NOT have lupus saying, “Today is World Lupus Day. Please forward this message to 10 more people and help spread the message throughout the world. Thank You. For more information, please go to lupusuk.org.uk”
6. If you have school-age children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, make contact with the child’s Head Teacher and ask if he/she will display a poster in the school and if each child can be given a bookmark prior to 10th May.
If the school will hold an event, such as a non-uniform day (paying a nominal sum, usually 50p or £1) or a sponsored event (such as walking around the playground a set number of times or collecting litter), that will be wonderful.
The main aim though is to raise awareness of lupus. Hopefully, the children will read their bookmark then take it home and show it to their parents – two generations learning about lupus through one action!
When you have the agreement of the Head Teacher, contact National Office with the name of the school and the number of children attending. The bookmarks, which have been produced especially for this project, will be mailed along with a poster either directly to the school or to you, whichever is preferred.
7. Host a coffee morning with friends or at work. We have information about how to host a successful event and a downloadable poster available here - lupusuk.org.uk/latest-news/...
8. Print off or request a poster from National Office and put it up at work, your local church/community centre or hospital. You can download it here - lupusuk.org.uk/images/pdf/w...
9. “Adopt a hospital” for World Lupus Day and beyond by ordering the Display Stand and Bookmarks for display in your local hospital, rheumatology/lupus clinic. We would encourage members 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. Please contact National Office to request your display stand.
10. Donate £2 to LUPUS UK by texting “LUUK16 £2” to 70070
If you have any questions or need any help, please feel free to email paul@lupusuk.org.uk or phone National Office on 01708 731251 (Mon-Fri, 9-5)
