It affects one in five people, yet the vast majority of people who suffer from an autoimmune disease don’t even know they have one.
In an effort to raise awareness about autoimmune diseases, which attack the body’s immune system, local Jasperite Marta Rode is encouraging residents and members of the public to wear their pajamas and march through Jasper’s downtown core, March 3, starting at 5:30 p.m.
The first march was held in 2012, nearly a year after Rode was in the thick of her own autoimmune crisis, struggling with a Wegener’s granulomatosis diagnosis.
Wegener’s is a rare autoimmune disease, affecting one in 40,000 people; it’s incurable and life-threatening and requires long-term immunosuppression through the use of powerful medication or chemotherapy.
After spending months in her pyjamas, often looking like herself, but never feeling like herself, she wanted to do something to raise awareness about autoimmune disease—of which there are 150—and to start a conversation about finding the common thread that links them all.
Autoimmune diseases—lupus, Crohn’s, rheumatoid arthritis and hyperthyroidism, to name a few—cause the body’s immune system to attack the very organs it is meant to protect.
“A lot of people don’t even realize that the disease that they might have, or that their parents might have, or that their children might have, is an autoimmune disease,” said Rode.
“Autoimmune disease is where cancer was in the 70s. People don’t know about it, they don’t realize how costly it is, not just to individual lives and families, but to society as a whole.”
In recent years it looked like Rode was getting the upper hand on her disease, but following last year’s PJ Day, which also included several events throughout the month of March, her symptoms returned.
“I’m personally pulling back this year because I got sick last year at the end of PJ month and I’m still fighting back,” said Rode. “Initially I was going to drop the whole thing, but as I got better through the year I thought it would be a cop-out to drop it.”
Those that want to participate in the march are asked to wear pajamas and meet in front of the Info Centre at 5:30 p.m. on March 3.
Last year more than 600 people signed-in at the march and organizers estimated a few hundred more joined the crowd along the route.
“It’s about raising awareness. If we can reach one or two people who haven’t thought about the picture as a whole then we’ve succeeded,” said Rode.
For more information about PJ Day or autoimmune diseases visit www.findthecommonthread.com.
With files from Nicole Veerman
Paul Clarke
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