The campaign aims to raise €1130 to enable young people from 18 to 30 years old, with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), to participate in an Iberian Meeting which the goal is to feet this age group closer together.
On the 3rd of September, Cláudia will participate in Ironman 70.3 Cascais, which is a half distance triathlon event. It will be 1.9km swimming, 90km cycling, and 21.1km running! Let's exchange the 113km that our athlete will do, into 1130€ that will ensure the bus rental for our IBD young people!
What does it mean IBD?
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Both are chronic diseases with aggressive phases and periods of remission. While Crohn's disease can affect any segment of the digestive tract, ulcerative colitis, more specifically, affects the mucosa lining the large intestine. Both men and women are likewise susceptible of carrying the disease. IBD can occur at any age but, early symptoms appear more often in individuals aged between 15-35 years old. According to the European Federation of Associations of IBD (EFFCA), IBD can currently affect around 5 million people worldwide.
What is APDI? APDI is the Portuguese Association for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease. It was founded in 1994, and it has been recognized as a Private Institution of Social Solidarity (IPSS) since 2001. It is considered as an association of patients for patients, mainly aims to provide advising and care for people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, their families and friends; Also improve knowledge in general population about this disease.
The Iberian Youth Meeting
This year, APDI will promote an Iberian Youth Meeting, together with the Spanish ACCU (Association of Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis), and it is aimed to IBD young people from both countries, between the ages of 18 and 30. Each participant can bring a family or friend of the same age group. From September 15 to 17 of 2017, this group of young people will enjoy, in Valencia de Alcántara (Spain), several activities and moments of leisure, but also shared experiences and knowledge about IBD. This initiative is particularly relevant because, it is focused on young people who have often only recently been diagnosed with the disease. It is crucial for patient to know what the disease is, and to be aware of all the implications of living with IBD; who can receive support; and understanding from other patients with similar difficulties, and acquire knowledge to overcome the same problems. It is essential that these young people learn to be happy with IBD!
Edição do encontro 2013
About the author
About the promoter – “The campaign’s face”
The idea of create this campaign came from Cláudia Pernencar, an APDI associate. Cláudia is 43 years old, she teaches in higher education, and she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2002. As a patient and a citizen, she feels that is her duty to help those who have more difficulty. So, she launched the challenge to APDI, and the Association's leadership responded enthusiastically.
Claudia in the first person:
My Crohn's disease follows me 15 years ago ...
Until the diagnosis, late, I lost 12 kilos. Three years later, and after consecutive hospitalizations, it became clear that surgery was predestined. But before that, it took five long months in hospital, with antibiotics and parenteral nutrition, to take care of a bowel full of abscesses. It weighed in the height 45 kilos. The surgery involved the extraction of terminal ileum (the part of the small intestine which the main function is to absorb nutrients from what we eat). Six months later, she increased five kilos, but the medication was not being efficiency, and the disease was growing worse. That is when I started a biological medication, with which I got significant improvements, and that I take until today. It was only later that anemia, at that time chronic, has come to be controlled, and so it remains. Over the years, I have been changing personal habits and routines, adapting myself to the disease (and disease to myself) and today I can say that I live an absolutely "normal" life.
... but my passion for sports has always been with me.
I have been doing sports since I was 8 years old. I was in the third class when I started swimming, where I was almost 17 years and I attended to pre-competition. I briefly passed by federated handball, and after finishing college, I dedicated myself to aerobic competition, which was giving the first steps in Portugal. From the age of 27 I began to feel some difficulties with high impact sport and I decided to try windsurfing. However, for almost ten years, with the worsening of the disease, I had to adopt for a very moderate sport practice, bodybuilding and yoga. But in the last 5 years, after several moths with biological treatments, I was able to return to high intensity sport, and today I am (proudly) a federated triathlete.
In sport as in illness (and in life ...), my motivation is simple:
Turn obstacles into small achievements!
Fotografia da promotora
Budget and due dates
It is intended to raise a minimum value of 1,130 euros until September 11 of 2017.
This value will be used to ensure the bus rental that will transfer IBD young Portuguese to Valencia de Alcántara, in Spain, to participate in the Iberian Meeting that will take place between September 15 and 17.
If the amount raised exceeds the minimum amount, the surplus money will be used to pay psychology appointments to APDI members with more economic difficulties
Images
