Participate in the European VWD Awareness Day 2024 organized by the EHC!
Discover all the details of the campaign lauched this year to raise awareness on vWD
The EHC Von Willebrand Disease (VWD) Committee has been promoting the formation of a European community of people with von Willebrand Disease (VWD) since its foundation in 2020.
The main objective of the VWD Committee is to provide support and 'identity' for the VWD community, whilst also building and maintaining a network of European VWD advocates.
On the 1st of February, coinciding with the birthday of Erik Adolf von Willebrand, the European VWD Awareness Day is celebrated to raise global awareness of VWD.
Since 2023, with the ambition to increase and improve diagnosis and treatment options nationally and at the European level, they launched the project 'How Did That Happen' to raise awareness of vWD and all those impacted and affected by the condition. They partnered with Agate Lielpētere, a Latvian visual artist, who shined a light on one of the primary VWD symptoms - bruising - and the psycho-social impact on all PwVWD.
In this European VWD Awareness Day 2024, following the success of the previous campaign, they are launching the European VWD identity and the motto "Making the invisible visible".
We invite you to discover all the details of this campaign on the official website and do not miss the opportunity to collaborate by raising awareness on vWD today by using the hashtags #VWDunited #VWDtogethere #beVWDaware !!
Baiba Ziemele, the ERN-EuroBloodNet ePAG dedicated to Hemophilia diseases is part of the EHC Von Willebrand Disease (VWD) Committee. On this European VWD Awareness Day 2024 she quotes:
“In light of the personalization of care, as European Union citizens, we expect harmonization of healthcare services we can receive in our countries and strive for the best available care. As the EHC VWD Committee, we hear many heartbreaking experiences and inequity in how we, the VWD community - people living with VWD, receive diagnosis and care, if any.
We teamed up with ERN-EuroBloodNet, the European Reference Network on rare hematological diseases, which unites all excellence centers and professionals in hematology in Europe, to highlight issues and solutions for various life situations where we as patients cannot survive and live normally without professional medical help. VWD is a relatively new diagnosis, it was discovered less than 100 years ago, and many stereotypes and prejudices exist, preventing us from getting adequate help when we bleed. It is time to make a difference!”