WORD Day 2020

WORD DAY BOOKMARK UPDATE: If you received a pack of our WORD Day bookmarks to share at school and are now unable to due to COVID-19, remember that these can be shared at any time in the year and not just this week. The important thing right now is for us all to make sensible decisions, stay safe and remember that raising awareness of JIA is something that can happen all year round and not just on 18th March. So please don't worry about delaying or postponing your plans for your bookmarks.

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As you may have seen on our social media channels, we've been joining in with WORD Day 2020 activities in the run up to WORD Day on 18th March.

WORD Day stands for World yOung Rheumatic Diseases Day, of which Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is one.

The aim of WORD Day is to spread the word that young people get rheumatic diseases too, with the goal of encouraging early diagnosis of rheumatic diseases which can make a big difference to long term outcomes for children. A goal that we too are passionate about at Juvenile Arthritis Research. We know the huge difference that increased awareness can make. Our #ThinkJIA campaign shares this goal so raising awareness is something we can all do all year round and not just on WORD Day.

So what have we been up to:

• Many of you requested our WORD Day 2020 bookmarks featuring Kipo the monkey and sharing the key message that children get arthritis too. These have been distributed to 50 locations around the UK, reaching up to around 2,000 people! That is certainly going to help get the WORD out about JIA - thank you!
• We've been speaking with local businesses to raise awareness of JIA and looking at ways we can work together to raise awareness amongst their employees, their customer base and across the whole town. This model can then be built on and used across the UK for raising awareness. If you are able to volunteer with us to raise awareness where you live, please get in touch.
• We've been joining in the #WORDDay2020 conversation on twitter and through our own social media channels, sharing your tips and ideas on topics affecting children and young people with JIA. You can read more about dealing with the pain of injections here, and about transition from child to adult services here.
• We will be continuing to join in the conversation across our own social media channels so look out for our posts to share and help spread the word.

The WORD Day team have lots of resources and ideas on the WORD Day 2020 website here. For example, you could take part in the #ButtonChallenge by wearing a pair of gloves to button up an item of clothing demonstrating how difficult simple tasks can be for some children with JIA and other rheumatic conditions.

The WORD Day facebook frame is now ready to use - Perhaps you can use it on your profile picture to let your friends know that you are supporting WORD Day and help spread the word that children get arthritis too.