Lupus is an autoimmune disease that causes someone's immune system to attack their own body. It can attack any part of the body, at any time, and is currently incurable and unpredictable.
Lupus affects 1 in 750 people (90% of whom are women), making it more prevalent than MS, leukemia or muscular dystrophy. Yet doctors and scientists don't really know what causes lupus, why people get it how it works... in fact they know very little! As such, diagnosis takes an average of 4 years, and support for patients is thin on the ground.
Your donation could help change that.
I'm raising money for two lupus charities: St. Thomas' Lupus Trust, a charity that focuses on research, and Lupus UK, a charity that focuses on patient support.
What am I going to do?
I'm going to sweat through two sporting events. First, I'm going to run the Edinburgh half marathon in aid of Lupus UK. Then I'll row the same distance (21km) on a rowing machine in a gym in aid of St Thomas' Lupus Trust.
Finally, I'm also going to blog about lupus on The Butterfly Effect, a blog site that my girlfriend Ellie and I have set up to share our experiences and learning about lupus.
Why am I doing this?
My girlfriend Ellie was diagnosed with lupus in May 2012 and as she writes in the introduction to the site: "one of the hardest things about having lupus (for me anyway) is being surrounded by people who don't know what lupus is". So then, these fundraising efforts and the blogging are our attempt to do our part to change that.
As for big print: Gift Aid if your a UK taxpayer!
