Today is the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day. It all started in Europe in 1911 when millions rallied to celebrate. It is hard to imagine getting together millions of people in 1911 without Facebook, Blogs and the Internet.
This leads me to two thoughts. And, yes, they will certainly be tied to Rett Syndrome.
First: I was reading a medical blog the other day which had one sentence that really struck me. It was not anything new, it was just the way it was stated... and perhaps there was something about my state of mind when I read it:
"The only known risk factor for getting Rett Syndrome is being female." Wow. That is a tough one to swallow. Think about how random this is.
Every now and then I calculate how many girls have been born with Rett Syndrome since our daughter Sarah was born. As of today (going by 18 born each day) we are at 66,366. 66,366 girls Sarah's age who cannot grow up to be the women they deserve to be. And that figure doesn't even come close to the total which reaches close to half a million.
1,206 born just in 2011 so far.
Second: We need to find all of these girls. Women around the world need to know about them. We can stop this. For all the girls and women reading this today, do something to push us closer to a cure. Every little bit counts.
If one million people can gather in 1911 without mass communication, certainly we can keep sounding the alarm about Rett Syndrome.
Make today your tipping point. If you have not been involved with raising awareness and funds for research, start today. We'd love to have you by our side.
We have an entire section on our website dedicated to HOW TO HELP -- click there now! We need YOUR POWER to cure Rett Syndrome.
