Through the encouragement of the LDUC to put a press release in our local newspaper written by the president, Judith Weeg I approached our local newspaper to run the press release. They said they would not run the press release, but would do a personal story on me and Lyme disease. I was very uneasy at first. I thought about it and decided, no, people need to read about this. So I did an interview. Most of it was about Lyme and symptoms with a bit about my story. I was very pleased and have had many people stop me on the street (live in a small town) and say they had no clue it was here or that they could get it. One guy even said he wanted me to talk to his wife because she had a bite and the red ring a year ago and not doing well. I was not shunned, but was taken seriously. I had a call yesterday from a gal who had read the article. Her husband is in the hospital with a bite of some kind that had made him very sick. The PA wants to check him for Lyme. She was calling for the Igenex phone number. It worked!!!! I educated the public. A challenge to all. Can you do the same? My friend in Salina, Ks has now done the same and will come out very some in the Salina Journal newspaper. I am not tooting my horn. I think we have a responsibility to be proactive here and do our part to help others. As we have all read, there is a movement going on right now to have aLyme bill passed in congress. Lets get on the bandwagon and help the awareness of the terrible disease.
Posted by poppy (Member # 5355) on :
Congratulations. You may have saved some people from chronic lyme, or at least helped them find a diagnosis.
Patients have been doing this over the years and had the same experience you had.
Reporters seem to want personal stories, rather than big picture issue stories (or when they do the latter, they too often quote the wrong "experts.")
The main thing is not to use any lyme doctors names in those interviews/stories.
Another useful thing to do is donate lyme books to the local library, if they allow this, or ask the librarian to purchase some specific books for their collection. I found my diagnosis by going to the library where a local support group had placed a lyme book. Later, in another town, I suggested getting specific titles for the library, and they bought 6 copies of one!!
[ 07-14-2012, 01:18 PM: Message edited by: poppy ]
Posted by cozynana (Member # 34270) on :
Poppy, Thanks for the insight.
I will see if I can get our librarian to get some Lyme books.
I live in a very small town with an excellent library.
I did include the website of ILADS and LUDC in the newspaper story.
Posted by lymeladyinNY (Member # 10235) on :
I've done a couple of newspaper stories for my local paper. Many people called for more information and I was happy to give it. I certainly hope I've helped more than one person get help. Posted by cozynana (Member # 34270) on :
lymelady, So glad to hear others are doing the stories in the newspapers. I think that if everyone of us would do these we could gradually get the public educated and maybe the mainstream med. would see there is a bigger issue than just two weeks of antibiotics and say we are well.
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