January 2012

We need your help! Last year, the Rheumatoid Patient Foundation (RPF) was formed as the first and only non-profit with the sole purpose of improving the lives of people with Rheumatoid Arthritis. We have a great fundraising opportunity coming up soon, but we need to act fast!

Find A Cure Panel specializes in patient research for rare and serious diseases including RA--and they have an upcoming 15 minute anonymous online survey for those with RA and on medication.

If you complete the survey, FACP will donate $25 to Rheumatoid Patient Foundation.

If you would you like to participate, please contact FACP at info@findacurepanel.com
and put "FACP RA Survey/RPF" in the subject line.  This will pre-register you to receive the survey, which should be available next week.

Here's the kicker: there are only 200 survey spots available and other organizations are competing for the funds. Please help us raise money for RA Awareness by pre-registering for this survey -- the opportunity won't be there for long! Thank you in advance for your support and helping the RPF continue to make an impact!

Dear Fellow Warrior,

I’m glad for a chance to share with you from my heart and provide a brief peek behind the scenes at RAWarrior.com. I read almost every one of the thousands of comments on the blog, Twitter and Facebook each month, as you may know since I respond many of them. I’m behind on emails, but I read them all too! Please know that whether you’re a person living with Rheumatoid disease or one who cares about those of us who do, you are special to me. I truly appreciate that you read my blog and I love hearing back from you.

Does your schedule ever look overwhelming the way mine does? That’s evidence of hope and opportunity! In recent months, the opportunities have been more than I could manage. In fact, a few offers slipped by because I was too busy. What a gift my friend Meredith gave to me last week when I asked her to extend a deadline for a contribution to a Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media project: “Congrats on all the great deadlines!” Brilliant! As I told Lene the next day, we must celebrate having so many opportunities in our lives!

The most exciting things that I have been able to do involve presenting the patient point of view in settings beyond RA Warrior. Recently I helped to create a CME for improving care of RA patients, published articles on other websites and newsletters, and did a couple of radio interviews. I feel like the most significant thing I do is to provide a voice for the thousands of patients who have asked me to speak for them.

For those fighting the RA battle, 2012 is certain to be a year of hope and opportunity. New treatments are in the pipeline. The RPF plans are ramping up. And we are making progress at awareness of this disease! Already, the calendar is filling up with opportunities to make a difference on behalf of RA patients. I’m hoping lots of you will join me the second weekend in March in Sugar Land, Texas. I’ll be speaking at G5, the fifth annual Gathering presented by Arthritis Introspective. Next month, I’ll also be speaking in Tampa at a local Arthritis Foundation event.

So you don’t miss anything, be sure you’re subscribed to receive the regular RA Warrior blog posts by email – click here if you still need to sign up.

Love,

Kelly

We continue to hear from new folks every day who learned about RA Warrior in their doctor’s office while reading December’s Web MD magazine – click here to see – and the RPF received a $2500 award as a result.

Health Central also featured yours truly this week as part of a special series about how to advocate for yourself. It was the most fun and factual interview I’ve done and I hope you will not miss it – click here to read.

What causes RA? Click here for an overview of environmental factors being investigated as triggers of RA.

Special thanks to Dana for getting The Spear newsletter updated!