Thyroid Champions

World Thyroid Day is 25th May 2021 and International Thyroid Awareness Week #ITAW20 runs from then until 31st May. 

We've been talking to many of our thyroid friends including Michael Rosen, who has hypothyroidism and we are excited about the support that is building for this event this year!  Check out our interview with Michael, as part of our new #TTT24Q series. 
 You can change your profile picture on Facebook to have this special frame to show your support and encourage as many people as possible to be thyroid champions too!  Thanks to Kathryn for being our first Facebook profile picture frame downloader and letting us share her photo. 

Butterfly runners

Our director Lorraine and some friends are raising money by holding a butterfly run and picnic in Kent. If you'd like to support them, the link below will take you to their fundraising page. 

New Awareness Video

Thank you to Dr Catherine Millington-Sanders for producing a new thyroid awareness video for us for World Thyroid Day 2021!
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​Let's all do as much as we can to raise awareness and celebrate thyroid patients in the UK. 

Butterflies Arise! is a fun way to donate. We'd like, of course, to see as much fundraising as possible too - perhaps you could do a Facebook fundraiser to support our work, or a butterfly picnic with friends, or ask friends and family to sponsor you to do a personal challenge like a run or a walk.  Fundraisers can create and link a fundraising page to our Thyroid Champions campaign on Virgin Money Giving.

There's a special Thyroid Champions motion for thyroid patients in the Scottish Parliament, thanks to outgoing MSP Elaine Smith, who  has hypothyroidism and has long campaigned for her fellow patients!  Please ask your MSP to support this motion if you are in Scotland and let's all ask everyone close to us to be a Thyroid Champion themselves and get behind thyroid patients for this special week of the year! 

The thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland so we like to use the butterfly as an awareness raising emblem. Last year several of us undertook butterfly themed activities such as runs, and cycles, asking friends and family to support us - our Fantastic Fundraisers are definitely Thyroid Champions! 

As a new and tiny charity we need your help to make some noise and raise some much needed additional funds to help us do more to make things better for thyroid patients!
It's harder than ever for thyroid patients' issues to be heard, during these difficult times and of course, we all still want to support the NHS to focus on beating the Covid19 pandemic at the moment, first and foremost, since it's such a huge global threat. 

But let's not let this date go by unmarked, it's our day and our week, as people affected by thyroid disease. Our time to acknowledge each other and  let those around us know a bit more about thyroid health issues. ​

​After all, thyroid disease can often run in families. How much do our loved ones know about thyroid conditions, what to look out for in case they start to become ill and they can best support you, or any of their friends or other family members who may become unwell with thyroid disease. ​​
If you're well, celebrate! It's inspiring for anyone newly diagnosed to know that people with thyroid disease can usually live a full and active life, once their condition is well managed. Most people with a thyroid condition can be relatively easily treated. But we know that around 10% of patients, perhaps many more, have a very difficult time with their condition and that in some cases it can be hard to access effective treatment, for lots of reasons, all of which we're determined to address, to make things better over time. If you're one of those people who is currently suffering with a thyroid condition, please know that you're not alone. Reach out. Be informed, ask for help and share your story, so that we can help inform clinicians, researchers and policy makers of the issues that need to be raised. 

Information Event

with Dr Peter Taylor 
​for International Thyroid Awareness Week.
26th May
6pm - 7:30pm 
This event will take place online. 

Dr Pete Taylor will give a talk and answer questions on a new study into thyroid hormone treatment and cholesterol  
Please book your FREE place via Eventbrite, 
Donations are welcome but entirely optional.

Butterflies Arise

We  have set up a lovely webpage with a field of beautiful butterflies to inspire us all to feel less alone and leave messages and donations of support for International Thyroid Awareness Week and World Thyroid Day - have a look and perhaps you'd like to add yourself to the page and read the messages from other thyroid friends. 

Fahmidan Journal

 A very special issue of Fahmidan Journal is  published on World Thyroid Day, with poems, prose and opinion pieces from thyroid patients.  Perhaps if you're holding a picnic you might like to give it a poetry theme and read some of the submissions together - particularly if you've sent something in. The issue is full  of incredibly powerful writing. We hope it will be widely shared and go some way to building understanding of how it is to live with a thyroid condition. 

UK Health Radio

Our Director, Lorraine, was interviewed on  the Chris Grimes Good Listening To Show on 11th May 2021 and the May issue of the station's magazine for subscribers featured an article entitled Thyroid Champions in May!  Thanks to Chris and everyone at the station for supporting World Thyroid Day and International Thyroid Awareness Week - you are all Thyroid Champions!

Tweet Chat

If you use Twitter - please join in our first ever tweet chat #ThyroidTrustChat on World Thyroid Day, 25th May 12pm BST, kindly organised by Alexandra Fulford, who is a healthcare digital media strategy expert and thyroid patient.

Creative Thyroid Cafe

Following International Thyroid Awareness Week,  join us online for an online Creative Thyroid Cafe chat with artist, Vicky Roden and friends, on Monday 7th June, 11am - 12:30pm.  How can people affected by thyroid disease use creativity for awareness raising and to build understanding of patient experiences. Bring your art and ideas to share with your thyroid friends! 
Book on Eventbrite 

Fondant Thyroids

Artist and thyroid patient, Vicky Roden, has created a fun video workshop to show you how to make fondant thyroids as a special treat for World Thyroid Day 2021! 

Webinars from Thyroid Federation International.

Details and booking link for 26th May 1pm seminar 
The Scourge of Iodine Deficiency on Woman & Child with Dr Michael Zimmermann
https://bit.ly/3bWJdJZ

booking link for 31st May1pm  seminar ​
Iodine, COVID-19 and Thyroid Diseases with Professor Leonidas Duntas
https://bit.ly/3fLhBZw

Both of these talks will be available to watch on the Thyroid Federation YouTube channel in due course. 

Please support us in International Thyroid Awareness Week

We are still very new, we only completed our registration with the charity commission in May 2019 and as you can imagine  our resources are currently very stretched. It's a big thing to set up a new charity. We have created The Thyroid Trust to be a strong voice for patients, to work for everyone affected by thyroid disease, including friends, family and interested professionals and to organise regular events with expert speakers (which are now taking place online, of course) as well as general awareness raising.

We have a huge challenge. We can't do it alone. We work with several partners and we are all learning and growing together.  If you can support us financially with a donation or could even perhaps do some fundraising around World Thyroid Day and International Thyroid Awareness Week that would be amazing!

We have some great Thyroid Trust,  'you're not alone', Tshirts and some sweet little TTT badges available for our supporters. ​
Let us know what you're up to by posting on our Facebook Page, Tweeting us, or emailing.

Join us online on 26th May, for an interesting talk with endocrinologist Dr Pete Taylor - and/or for our Creative Thyroid Cafe on 31st May - both are FREE, donations welcome of course, but entirely optional. 

Fantastic Fundraisers get an extra big thumbs up from us, there are some wild and whacky fun activities being planned,  mostly home based, but some that can be done during daily allowable outdoor exercise. Last year we had runners wearing  wearing butterfly wings, butterfly facepaints, a cycling challenge with a butterfly theme, creating butterfly artworks and more!  This year we're also suggesting butterfly picnics for those who are more interested in doing something sociable than having to be very active!  Can you do anything like that in your community that might be fun and help raise some vital funds and awareness? 

​...  Join in, let's raise the profile of thyroid health!

Obviously, all face to face activities must observe the government's social distancing guidelines at the time, which may be subject to change, so do be sure to check what restrictions are in place whenever you plan to do anything, don't break any rules. Stay safe and we'd love to see any photos or videos you take. 

​This year let's all use the hashtags #ThyroidChampions as well as the global hashtags #WorldThyroidDay and #ITAW21 and let's invite our friends and family to become champions for thyroid patients too!

You can pick up images and graphics you might like to use and posters you can print and display on the link below.