Fibromyalgia Awareness

This is a checklist of things that you can do to increase fibromyalgia awareness. Sample letters are available from this website for most of these tasks and if you would like help with something that is not available here, please check www.diagnosesupport.com where more of my awareness materials are being made available, or feel free to contact me via the "Contact Us" form at www.diagnosesupport.com and I will see what I can do! I realise that for some people it is difficult to do these things, due to brain fog or other symptoms, so am happy to do anything I can to make it easier for you to increase awareness.

You may use any of the information on this website as you please to increase awareness and you may edit it as you wish. If you want to print something on a T-shirt, go for it! Anything that you can think of to increase awareness is fine by me 

1) distributing leaflets - including giving them to our doctors because so many of them don't know what FM & CFS are!
See the leaflets at http://diagnosesupport.com/main/content/blogcategory/50/84/

2) contacting the press (sample letter available on this site for free)


3) contacting TV shows


4) The Grass Roots Initiative! Go to www.co-cure.org ...Click on List Archives on the left hand side, then click on April 2006, week 4. Number 15 is the grass roots initiative information.

Part way down the page you will see where you can go to download the congressional action letter. The letter is very well written. You can now make copies of the letter and add a short cover letter and mail to your congressmen.

The grass roots article will give you a website for addresses of your senators and representatives


5) Contact your MPs! (sample letter available on this site for free)

UKers go to
http://www.dh.gov.uk/ContactUs/ContactDetailsList/ContactDetailsArticle/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4068197&chk=hY0Bwf
to contact your MP and the Department of Health


6) email info to friends, etc (I emailled my entire contact list) - (sample email "fwd" available here for free) 


7) email Google, Yahoo, Walmart, Netscape, MSN, People Pc, Netzeroto etc to ask for a FM/CFS logo and link to be put on the homepage on May 12th (they didn't do it this year but I'm keeping this on the list for next year because I'm sure they'll do it if lots of people email them near the time!)


8) post about increasing awareness on any messageboards that you go to, including awareness boards and change-the-world-type boards that many of us will have joined during our teenage rebellion phase :)


9) awareness bumper stickers (available from www.cafepress.com)


10) those of us at university can email our entire university contact list some information (you know you want to!) and many people who work for large companies will be able to send an email to everyone on the contact list too. Reach out, you could help a coworker!


11) contact radio stations


12) Give speeches in schools! Secondary schools in the UK are always desperately looking for people to talk about anything and everything for those PSHE lessons. To do this I recommend you sign up to be a Diagnose Support advocate (www.diagnosesupport.com - it's free to sign up, we just ask for registration so that we know where people are raising awareness and where we need to target) then you will gain access to our powerpoint presentations, detailled lecture notes, sample letter to schools, etc and you can also use our documentary to raise awareness.

13) wear awareness bracelets etc (some really cool bracelets available from http://www.ourfm-cfidsworld.org/) and use other memorabilia and take every opportunity to explain WHY! (http://www.slamdunksapparel.com/ is a website started up by an 11 year old girl to raise awareness for CFS because her aunt suffers from it. Ashley, the owner of the site is now producing fibromyalgia items too!)


14) insert a small information card about FM within all of your Christmas cards! (available on this site for free)

15) put posters up wherever you can! (FM & CFS posters available from this site for free)

16) show people the fibromyalgia documentary at www.diagnosesupport.com/documentary.htm I am Holly in that video!

GO TEAM!!

www.freewebs.com/fibromyalgiaawareness

Fibromyalgia Awareness - Highlighting an Invisible Illness!