Lyme Awareness Month starts tomorrow! Check out what we’re up to!
As with last year, we’ll be aiming to educate the public and raise the profile of Lyme disease with our activities during the month of May, which is the beginning of peak tick season. These activities will look a little different to last year, given the current social distancing measures.
We also want to create some engaging content for you to enjoy and interact with. This will include blogs on the role diet can play in fighting Lyme disease, and tips on managing your mental health whilst dealing with chronic illness.
Activities will include the below.
If you can get involved in just one of these, you’ll be helping to raise awareness of Lyme disease and potentially changing someone’s life for the better.
Read on for more details.
Wear Lime for Lyme Day
On Friday 1st May (tomorrow!), we’ll be taking part in our second Wear Lime For Lyme Day, and encouraging our supporters and followers to do the same.
The premise is simple. Wear something lime-green coloured (or just green if you don’t have lime!) this Friday. This can be anything, from a t-shirt, to a hat, to a pair of socks or a piece of jewellery. See image below for some inspiration from last year!
Take a photo of yourself in your green and share on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram) using the hashtag #WearLimeForLyme.
The aim is to catch the eye of people using social media to help raise awareness about Lyme, and this is a very easy way to do it.
It’s also a great way to honour the thousands of people across the world who are suffering with chronic Lyme disease
You could share a fact about Lyme disease, or direct them to an online resource for them to find out more.
To make that extra bit of difference, you could also make an optional donation to your Lyme charity of choice. If you’d like to donate to Caudwell LymeCo, simply text WEARLIME to 70085 to donate £3.*
The most important thing though, is taking part. We’d love to see a sea of lime-green in our feeds on Friday!
We hope you can join us in wearing lime for Lyme.
*Texts cost £3 plus one standard rate message and you’ll be opting in to hear more about our work and fundraising via telephone and SMS. If you’d like to give £3 but do not wish to receive marketing communications, text WEARLIMENOINFO to 70085.
We’re going LIVE for a Lyme awareness pub-style quiz
In a change from our usual monthly quiz format, to mark Lyme Awareness Month we’re hosting a special quiz LIVE on Facebook on Wednesday 13th May at 8:30pm.
The event is FREE to join and will include a round of Lyme-related questions, and we’ll be attempting a picture round too!
Rosie will be our live host. Tune in and join us, play with or against those you live with and have fun.
Click on the link above for the event in Facebook so you can RSVP and get a reminder!
Send us your questions for Lyme researcher
We’re pleased to let you know that as part of our Lyme Awareness Month content, we have secured an open Q&A with infectious disease researcher, John Tulloch.
John is a Research Fellow at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and has worked with the institution and Public Health England on a number of Lyme disease-related studies, some of which have been picked up by the media.
His latest on annual cases of Lyme disease was published just a couple of weeks ago and provided evidence of how the number of cases diagnosed in primary care is significantly higher than lab-confirmed cases.
He was also one of the authors on the study published last year on the demographics of patient hospital cases of Lyme disease, which resulted in slightly skewed headlines suggesting older, white women were more at risk.
John has a veterinary background, and has published papers on the risk of tick-borne disease to UK pets.
We’ll be pre-recording an audio Q&A with John to be released during May, and we’re inviting any questions you might have on Lyme disease research or his studies.
If you have a questions you’d like to ask, please email them to us by Monday 4th May.
Last chance to buy Lyme charity single
Toby’s charity single for Lyme disease is going to be released in just a couple of days!
With pre-order sales going to Caudwell LymeCo and Lyme Disease UK, that means there is only today left to buy it, and have 100% of the sales go to these charities.
Toby, 25, has suffered with Lyme disease for over 13 years and feels passionate about raising awareness and contributing towards research that will improve diagnosis and treatment, given the struggles he has faced.
His single ‘Never Going to Love You‘, was inspired by his struggle with Lyme and is being released on Friday 1 May, to coincide with the beginning of Lyme Awareness Month. However, it is on sale now, and is is the pre-order sales that will be split between the charities.
We’re extremely grateful to Toby for the support, and we encourage people to buy the single if they can.
Read our interview with the singer in one of our blogs, where you can also access the links to pre-order the single the buttons below.
Other ways for you to get involved
If you’d like to help spread awareness or support the work of our charity during May, there are a few other simple ways you can help.
1. Share the Lyme awareness facts that we post on social media. Help them get to your family and friends, the information could make a difference to someone’s life. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter.
2. Why not set up a Facebook Fundraiser for Caudwell LymeCo for the month of May? Or a Facebook Birthday Fundraiser if your special days falls within the month of May? We would be so grateful.
3. Let a local outdoor organisation or community group know about our free Lyme awareness talks – they can be delivered online during these times of social distancing.