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The countdown to the inaugural
International Brain Tumour Awareness Week has begun!
We look forward to hearing more about what you/your organisation is planning
for this important week in the international brain tumour community's calendar.
We have been gathering many
contributions towards our target of circling the world at the Equator (40,000
kms or 24,901 miles) by adding up the distances covered in fund-raising and
awareness-raising walks for brain tumours… here are a few examples: Jim
in Hawaii has collected 2,016 miles from 300 fitness walkers who use
the Queen Kapiolani Park for their regular exercise … Racewalkers in Victoria,
Australia, contributed 387 kms to the world target and raised $600 for the
neuroscience unit at a local hospital … Fifteen
walkers in Essex, England, contributed 210 miles in “A Walk for
Trina” and raised funds for Brain Tumour UK … 3,200 walkers in Chicago took
part in the ABTA
Path to Progress walk …
There are walkers ready to tackle
the Great
Wall of China and the High
Arctic in northern Canada …Veronica
O’Connor (UK) has donated the 1400 kms she walked from Fatima in
Portugal to Lourdes in France via Santiago Compostela in Spain. There have been
many other walks – too many to mention in detail but they will all be
acknowledged in our final coverage of the World Walk. We are definitely on
track to reach our 40,000 kms target.
Specific events to be held during the
October Awareness Week of 21-27
October are also emerging: A brain tumour scientific conference will be
held in
Linz, Austria … On 21 October
a picnic for families of brain tumour patients will be held in Adelaide,
Australia … On the same day in Sweden there will be a brain tumour awareness
walk across a bridge in Goteborg
and a walk in Northamptonshire
in the UK… In Belgium
on 26 October the brain tumour support group Werkgroep
Hersentumoren will hold a media conference … The next day in Italy
there will be the Irene
Onlus run in memory of a
former brain tumour patient and also a walk in the Netherlands
… We are also anticipating walks during October that are associated with the
USA NBTF
Angel Adventure Walks and the Brain
Tumour Foundation of Canada which has its annual Spring Sprint… but any
awareness-raising activity during the week is appropriate, it doesn’t have to
be a walk …
So far, we have had notifications of
support from more than 60
organisations around the world and our main brochure has been printed in 6
languages with a total print run of 22,000
copies … Hundreds of notice board posters have also been distributed.
The Australian racewalker and world 50
kms record holder Nathan Deakes
will be competing in the World Athletics Championships at Osaka, Japan, next
Saturday (1 September). His photo and words of personal support appear in our
main brochure. You can send a message of encouragement to Nathan before his big
race by clicking here.
Our promotional brochure continues to
be widely distributed … The 1200 participants expected at the European
Association of Neurological Societies (EANS)
conference next month will each receive a copy in their delegates’ bag …
The IBTA will have an exhibit stand at the European Cancer Conference (ECCO14)
to be held in Barcelona during 24-27 September. We plan to have versions of the
brochure available in the Spanish and Catalan languages for the local
participants from among the anticipated 12,000 delegates, as well as versions
in English, French, Italian, German and Polish.
Five
things you can do:
NOTIFY
US of your event so we can list it on the
Awareness Week and World Walk website
PROMOTE the World Walk and Awareness Week on your website and in your
printed material between now and October.
LINK your website to the IBTA's so that visitors to your site who are
interested can easily link to more information about the activities. This is
the URL your webmaster should link to: www.theibta.org
DONATE any mileage from sponsored walks to the target for the Walk
Around the World - remember we don't want any funds raised, we just want the
mileage
GET READY to spread the word about the Awareness Week and Walk through
your local newspapers, radio and television stations - we will be preparing a
press pack to help you. Our major
international media announcement will be based around international statistics
of brain tumours that we have commissioned from the CBTRUS.
Good
luck!
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