Are You Blogging Today?

Are you joining us and blogging about Invisible Illness Week or your invisible illness? If you don’t have a blog, just try to post something about it somewhere and it will help us out a lot. (MySpace, Facebook, any social network you are a part of.) Every time yuou post somewhere it helps us increase our exposure and it’s because of you this week is going to be a success!

A lot of our bloggers have joined Bloggers Unite to let us know when and where and what topic they have blogged about. you can read some awesome Invisible Illness Week blog posts that are all listed over there.

If you have posted your thought somewhere, be sure to let us  know below too in the comments section! We’d love to come and visit your blog!

Here is our press release about how bloggers are coming together for Invisible Illness Week.

Chronically Ill Unite September 14 to Blog About Invisible Illness Issues

Posted on Thursday, September 10, 2009

Popularity: 7% [?]

Are You Blogging for the Cause? Post Your Blog Here!

Hundreds of people are blogging for the cause of Invisible Illness Week! Thank you!

We look forward to visiting you blog post. Please write a sentence or two about your post and provide your link. We look forward to reading it and possibly sharing it with others too.

And if you haven’t yet, we’d love to have you register “officially” over at Bloggers Unite!

Here is a sampling of some of the blogs by illness bloggers who have signed up with Bloggers Unite and the blogs they have written. Be sure to check them out!

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PRESS RELEASE – feel free to reprint
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Chronically Ill Unite September 14
to Blog About Invisible Illness Issues

9/9/09 – SBWIRE – SAN DIEGO — Who would guess that nearly half of the U.S. population lives with a chronic illness? But according to a study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation over 133 million people have an illness or condition, most of which are invisible, and many that cause daily pain. Illnesses can range from Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy to diabetes, multiple sclerosis to fibromyalgia, or painful conditions like back pain and migraines.

With 75 percent of internet users using the internet for health information (Pew Internet Project, 8/08) and many of them seeking support, thousands of bloggers now post daily journals about the emotional challenges they face with daily chronic pain.

National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, September 14-20, 2009, invites bloggers to have a significant role in their awareness campaign. For example, part of their outreach has been featuring guest bloggers on their own web site invisibleillnessweek.com , as well as inviting bloggers around the globe to commit to blogging about invisible illness issues. To help spread the word they have also create a meme, “30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know” that people have posted on Facebook, blogs and other social networks.

Lisa Copen, who founded National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week in 2002 says, “Though our illnesses and symptoms may vary, we still have a great deal in common. We can learn from one another about coping and finding the balance of taking care of ourselves yet living life to the fullest.” Copen says patient blogs aren’t depressing like healthy people may assume. “Illness bloggers don’t typically dwell on the logistics of symptoms, lab tests, or hospital stays. Instead, they write on everyday topics and how their illness impacts their families, finances, careers. They may discuss patient advocacy issues, but they also write about vacationing with an illness or dating when you have a chronic illness.”

Invisible Illness Week was recently the host of Grand Rounds, the largest medical blog carnival on the internet.

Over 300 people have officially committed to blogging for Invisible Illness Week so far and many are sharing on their Facebook notes page or other social network. Copen encourages those who do not have a blog to shares something about their illness with Facebook friends, a few Twitter posts, or even in the comments section of the invisibleillnessweek.com web site.
If you would like to join this unique opportunity to blog for awareness about invisible illnesses, see www.invisibleillnessweek.com for details. Invisible

Illness Week’s highlight is a 5-day virtual conference with 20 speakers that can be heard online for free on a topics such as marriage with illness, applying for disability, setting boundaries, and when your child is ill.

Copen is also the founder of Rest Ministries which sponsors the event and IllnessTwitters.ning.com for anyone who “tweets” on health or medical conditions.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Contact Newsletter Editors

If you are like us you are signed up for all sorts of newsletters that have to do with health, illness, or your specific chronic illness.

Can you do us  a favor? Check your “inbox” right now for all the August newsletters you have recently received and drop the editor an email about II Week. We’d love to have editors of these know about National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week and even post something in their September newsletter about it.

The virtual conference held Sept 14-18 is completely free and we have a wonderful assortment of seminar topics as well as leaders in the chronic illness community, so it’s something well-worth editors mentioning.

Please copy and paste this and leave it on your desktop and as newsletters come in to you remember to scroll down and find the “contact us” area and send them a fast email informing them about II Week. Here is a template of what you can edit and use as your own.

Hi! My name is [name] and I always enjoy reading your newsletter. I wanted to make sure you were aware of National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week in September and their free 5-day virtual conference online.

The week is September 14-20, 2009. The theme this year is “A Little Help Gives a Lot of Hope.” The conference is M-F with 4 speakers giving seminars each day featuring many well-known illness leaders including Jenni Prokopy of chronicbabe.com, Rosalind Joffe, career expert, Christine Miserandio of butyoudontlooksick.com and Laurie Edwards, author of “Life Disrupted.”

There is lots of information available at the web site www.invisibleillness.com, including facts/statistics, articles, and some great goodies like tote bags or white silicone bracelets that say, “Invisible Illness – Visible Hope.” You can find daily updates, guest bloggers, a blog tour, lots of cool things to tweet and even a badge that says, “I’m blogging for Invisible Illness Week”.

They have sort blurbs that you can cut and paste directly into your newsletter or a longer press release at their web site under the MEDIA section. I hope you will consider including this in your next newsletter so more people can benefit. The event is entirely free and the conferences are done via Blog Talk Radio and will be available “live” or archived to listen to later on itunes.

Thanks again for taking the time to bring awareness about living with chronic illness through your web site.

[your name]

Popularity: 2% [?]

Host Interview w/ Lisa at Your Blog For II Wk Blog Tour

Guess what? Lisa is doing a blog tour to help spread the word about Invisible Illness Week and we are opening up our calendar so book your blog today! The tour is July 27 – September 13th and Lisa hopes to help spread the word about Invisible Illness Week!

How does it work? You sign up for the day that you would like to post an interview with Lisa on your blog. Lisa has answered a variety of questions about NICIAW and you will receive a unique “article” to post—meaning each post may say something similar but the article in itself is unique.

(We are pointing that out because many blog tours provide all blogs with the same exact article, which can cause Google to see it as duplicate content. The wording of the article for your blog site will be completely unique, so Google will actually like it!)

We provide the article with hyperlinks already embedded into the code and graphics that you can upload. When you sign up you can also submit 2 questions of your own to Lisa that she will answer and email back to you to post with the interview.

You can write the intro paragraph, change the wording of the questions, make it sound “like you.”

We are excited to reach many blogs that represent a wide variety of medical professions, as well as illnesses. If you have to wonder if an illness “applies” – it does. And invisible illness can be anything from cancer to migraines, bipolar disorder to lupus, or fibromyalgia to autism.

Every blog host will receive a free copy of Lisa’s book, “Beyond Casseroles: 505 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend.” It’s a paperback book but we will be giving away a free pdf digital version.

Thank you for your influence in the illness community by sharing your own experiences as well as bringing people together.

Once your date is confirmed we will:

• Post your participation on our Twitter accounts, Facebook, My Space, etc.
• The day your blog posts we will post it on our Twitter as well.
  We will do a Twitter post of any blog hosts who have a Twitter account
• It will be added to our mass calendar for II Week
• The schedule will be announced via a press release at SBWire.com where it will also hit Google News. The schedule will also be posted on all of our social networks, Invisible Illness Week web site, illnesstwitters.ning.com and more.

We are excited to let people discover how many spectacular health, illness and medical bloggers are out there.

If you are interested in hosting, please click here to sign up ASAP to grab your preferred slot!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Invisible Illness Week Founder Wins Women’s Health Hero

Lisa Copen, founder of Rest Ministries, Inc., the largest Christian organization specifically for those with chronic illness or pain won the Our Bodies Ourselves award for Women’s Health Hero: Audience Choice. On May 11, 2009 Our Bodies Ourselves announced the 2009 Womens’ Health Heroes, honoring the work of women’s health advocates worldwide, marking OBOS’s first annual effort to spotlight the diversity of care, education and activism in communities around the world.

See OBOS’s announcement, as well as the nomination and kind comments for Lisa here:
http://www.ourbodiesourblog.org/womens-health-heroes-2009

“Every day millions of people worldwide do incredible work to improve the health and well-being of women, and we want to bring attention to their efforts,” said Our Bodies Ourselves Executive Director Judy Norsigian. “Many of our heroes accomplish so much with very few resources, particularly on the frontlines of public health, where gaps in the quality of care and healthcare access remain persistent.”

The inaugural group, chosen from close to 100 nominations, represents seven countries: United States (13), Canada (2), Australia, The Netherlands, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Ukraine.

Jenny Prokopy of chronicbabe.com who was a special guest speaker in 2008 and will be participating in 2009 as well was also selected as one of the Womens Health Heroes.

Copen, who began Rest Ministries in 1997 after living four years with rheumatoid arthritis and not finding illness support that was faith-based says, “It’s a great honor to win this award, but more exciting is the opportunity to have the opportunity for Rest Ministries to gain the exposure. We sponsor National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week each September and have a five-day virtual conference online. I hope that this award will be a reminder of the resources that are out there to encourage people while living with illness.”

To find out more about Rest Ministries visit our web site at www.restministries.org and information for National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week is now being updated for 2009 at www.invisibleillnessweek.com

Popularity: 1% [?]