Giveaway and Vasculitis Awareness

April 25 through May 1 is Vasculitis Awareness Week. I will be spending the month of April doing various things to bring more attention to this family of diseases. Why? Because I live with Wegener's Granulomatosis, one of the many forms of Vasculitis, every day. Throughout the month, I will be writing blog posts about my experiences with Vasculitis and Wegener’s. I will need your help to spread the word and so I am having a giveaway – an incentive for you all to help me - on May 1^st. I will be giving away a necklace made especially for the giveaway. You can see it here.

You can have a chance to win this necklace by doing any (or all) of the following:

• become a follower of my blog,
• tweet about a blog post,
• post information on Facebook about one of my blog posts
• become a fan of my Willow and Me Facebook page, or
• mention my giveaway and Vasculitis in your blog.

Doing any of those things will give you one entry into the giveaway. You just need to let me know what you have done by emailing me at blog@willowandme.com. Each time I make a new blog post, you will have another chance to spread the word (and be entered again), but you must email me each time you do so I can keep track. Please include a link to, or copy of, whatever you have done. At the end of the month, I will tally all of the entries and, via a random process, will choose a winner. If you are already a follower of my blog or a fan of my Facebook page, you have automatic entries for those. Just pop me an email to let me know you want to be entered.

In addition to raising awareness for Vasculitis, I think it’s important to raise funds for Vasculitis research. So, for the month of April, ten percent of all the sales through my Etsy shop will go to the Vasculitis Foundation. Each purchaser will also receive a copper Hope charm as a thank you gift. For April, I will suspend all other donations I would normally give so more money can go to this cause (usually, I donate $10.00 to an animal-related charity if someone purchases one of my Willow Necklaces).

For the month ahead, look first for some general information on Vasculitis and then more specific information on Wegener’s Granulomatosis. After that, I will talk about my journey to diagnosis and living with Wegener’s. I will focus on Wegener’s, because that is what I live with every day.

For more information on Vasculitis in general and its various forms, visit the Vasculitis Foundation. A wonderful place to read stories and get information from other sufferers of Wegener’s Granulomatosis, is a Facebook page dedicated for Wegener’s patients and those close to them.

Thank you for all your help in spreading the word about these diseases! If you have questions along the way, feel free to post them in the comments and I will try my best to answer them.