WYASO Round-Up – Week 2

Welcome to the second WYASO Round-Up. This is your chance to catch up on all the amazing things that the WYASO community have been up to in the last week. So with out further ado, we’ll jump straight to it.

World Autoimmune Arthritis Day 2015

WAAD2015 is a global online nonprofit car race around the world of social media and internet. The aim is to put the spotlight on educational resources, as well as catapult global awareness for all types of autoimmune arthritis.
This year member of WYASO are competing under the team name Walk AS One. And we need your help to help WYASO get some exposure in at WAAD2015. To help us achieve this we need people to register for the day, but as part of the Walk AS One team. Please follow WAAD2015 Registration Page, where it will ask you which charities you are helping. Please mark the A.S. ones (SAA, NASS, CSA), it will then ask if you are part of a team supporting these charities — Write in ‘Walk AS One’ — and we’ll see if we can help out our charity friends as well as get some worldwide eyes on our new charity in the process! Our strong participation this year will hopefully help us be one of these charity teams next year.

Coping with Grief and AS

Karen from team Fitch Feet writes about grieving with AS.
“Right now I am in grieving. I am grieving the person I used to be…the person that once was.”
“[the Psychologist] said that I was already processing myself through Stage One of Grief: Denial. I still wasn’t certain what I was grieving, but I was earning kudos from a stranger with diplomas on the wall and letters after his name. I was feeling compliantly pleased with myself. He reminded me that the first reaction in the grieving process is denial and I clearly was not in denial.”

Trip to the Zoo Contest

Jennifer Pence of team Coach Matt’s AS Kickers went to the zoo with her son. Her team was given the chance to guess how many combined steps they will take. The winner received a personalised Dog Tag which was made by her husband Matt (who has AS).

 

Team Rockin’ Weebles new Instagram account

The team Rockin’ Weebles have set-up their very own Instagram account so that they can share their pictures of their walks and progress in this years WYASO event. If you are on Instagram you can follow them by clicking here!
 
 
 

NASS Capital Challenge

The National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society (NASS) in the UK held it’s first Capital Challenge at the weekend. This was a fundraising event held by NASS, but was attended by many of our walkers from the Orange Apples team.
“The first NASS Capital Challenge was a massive success, with over 50 people taking part in the 6 and 3 mile routes through the capital.
The sun shone brightly as walkers enjoyed glorious views of Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament.”
You can check out all the photos of the whole event on the NASS Facebook page.

 

And to finish off…a few of our favourite tweets of the week:

Anna wrote from the Orange Apples wrote on Facebook and Twitter about her achievement this week:
“Well today I ticked off my New Years resolution, which was to be able to climb Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons . I never, ever thought that, even just a few months ago this would be possible but here I am. I got up this morning and everything felt as good as I could hope for so went for it. ( I’ve never put pressure on myself to set a date, just knew when my body was ready, I’d know). To say it was emotional, would be an understatement. Days when just 5 minutes of walking was agony and I had tears in my eyes, pacing myself to gradually build up over months has been totally worth it. Today is a good day”

That’s my NY resolution ticked off. #BreconBeacons #orangeapples @NASSexercise @WalkYourASoff pic.twitter.com/VOP262Xes7

— annajd (@annaj_d) May 17, 2015

@WalkYourASoff Doing 1/2 marathon tomo + partner on 7km trail. We will be donating our steps to @TheWalkingSpondies Taiwan! — david mitchell (@scottiestar) May 15, 2015

Need to get 15k steps in today to meet weekly goal! #slacker #GetToSteppin @walkyourASoff — Becky Harding (@wolfwoman1st) May 17, 2015

Interesting to hear about #secukinumab #interleukin-17A for #ankylosingspondylitis today pic.twitter.com/VhmlCerewY — NASS Exercise (@NASSexercise) May 13, 2015

A friend asked me to use the word discomfort instead of pain. I told him that if I could live w/it, if he could hear about it. #ChronicLife — Lene Andersen (@TheSeatedView) May 13, 2015