We did the Vegas half marathon in 2011, and now we’re going to run the Barcelona full to raise money for autoimmune disease awareness & research. Care to donate to our cause?
For some reason, I really struggled with the concept of asking people to donate money for a cause I care about.
Why? Because it makes me feel extremely vulnerable. Because only a handful of people know that I have RA. Because asking for money makes me feel obnoxious.
But, I put all that aside and decided to set up a donation page to give my marathon a purpose: raise money for autoimmune disease research.
I chose to donate the money to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, because they are not focused on just one autoimmune disease. Since these crazy, mysterious diseases seem so connected, this appealed to me.
I know you all already do your part by raising awareness of autoimmune diseases, but please consider donating if you can:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Barcelona-Or-Bust-Running-For-Autoimmune-Diseases
P.S. Have you told everyone in your life about your disease or are you keeping it a secret? As I’m weighing the pros and cons of sharing the donate link on Facebook, I’m wondering how other people have handled this…
My RAD Life 
#1 by apierce on March 8, 2013 - 11:11 pm
At first I wanted to keep my RA a secret too, because I was worried that people would look at me different or think I was incompetent. Then I signed up for an arthritis walk last May and found myself asking the same question. I decided to share the link, and people were actually very supportive. Most of my donations actually came through Facebook. Now I don’t keep my disease a secret. I prefer that friends and coworkers know, that way I don’t have to come up with different excuses every time I’m not feeling well enough to go out for drinks after work or something. Don’t worry about people reacting negatively on Facebook…if they have a problem with you sharing about something important to you, then just delete them. The people who matter will be supportive.