RA Awareness Week 2018

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Thank you for taking part in Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness Week (RAAW) 2018!

We are delighted with the results of this year’s awareness week, and we are still receiving emails and updates of all the amazing thingsyou were doing in support of this week, and indeed beyond as well. We are pleased to announce that this year’s awareness week enabled us to generate many new supporters, followers and those who are passionate to raise awareness of RA through our social media, digital and traditional channels.

This year, the theme was #ReframeRA. There can be confusion around the public’s perception of what rheumatoid arthritis is, which can impact their reaction when a person with RA tells them about their disease. Our aim was to #ReframeRA, to educate and inform the public about exactly what the disease is and how it impacts those with the condition, as well as their friends, family, colleagues and health care professionals.

We highlighted this topic throughout the week with the launch of our mass awareness video, personal stories and exploring different perspectives from people living with RA; friends, family, co-workers, and the public to raise awareness and challenge misconceptions. In addition, we launched lots of exciting content and materials to help the RA community in all areas of living with RA.

Key Highlights include:

•  Over 97,000 views of our video launch ‘RA Matters’. This was a huge achievement for us and we are delighted with the level of engagement this generated. We will be using this video and further materials form it in the future so keep an eye out for this soon.  
  
• We asked you to send in your video diary entries about how RA impacts your life – from the point of view of someone with RA, their friends and family or health care professionals. We had over a dozen entries and featured them throughout the week. We were overwhelmed with the level of engagement, likes, shares and uplifting and supportive comments these video diaries received. Thank you.
  
  
• We conducted a survey with YouGov to find out whether the general public were aware of RA and what they thought it was. See some of the results here.
  
  
• We sent out 100s of packs for you to host information stands at hospitals and pharmacies
  
  
• We saw that many of you had changed your Facebook profile picture to our RA Awareness Week frame to spread the word.

Thank you again to you all, and here’s to another successful awareness week in 2019.