How EveryWoman Day can help

The aim of EveryWoman Day is to raise awareness and funding for common female health conditions which are poorly researched so poorly understood. The EveryWoman Day Award is to acknowledge and celebrate women who suffer them, and face daily challenges just to keep life ticking over.

Often the cause isn’t known, so every woman could be struck by them. Often there is no hope of a cure because there is no research being carried out.

Every woman who has these conditions – including things like OAB, fibroids, fertility problems etc – has lived through challenging experiences and for many, every day can be difficult. And that story will be inspiring.

Tackling taboos

These can be embarrassing problems but we need to talk about them. Let’s share experiences so that others can learn from them. In doing this, let’s make a noise so that perhaps research will be carried out and lives will be improved.

How to join in

Just choose what you want to paint on your belly – or choose a willing friend’s belly if you prefer. Whatever you feel is right.

Maybe a phrase sums up how you feel, or one word tells it all. What keeps you going through the darker days? How do you manage your pain and symptoms? How do you cope when it affects your relationships? What do you do to make it ok at work?

Choose a phrase or word or maybe you prefer to paint a picture. Get creative! Lipstick works well, or marker pens or face and body paint.

Snap a selfie or get someone to take a pic, and add filters if you want. Then write your story, upload it with the photo.

You can also share it with hashtags: #youandme #everywomanday #belowthebelt

Raising funds

There are buttons to click if you want to donate to relevant charities on these pages. The more we share the stories, the more people will come to the website and the more of them will donate.

Blow your own trumpet

Dr Karen Gardiner founded EveryWoman Day to acknowledge that every woman with reproductive health conditions is an inspiration.

She says:

As women, we are often more focused on what we haven’t done than appreciating what we have achieved. We are all about getting the next thing done because we are often juggling a multitude of responsibilities.

While every day involves pain, toilet mapping journeys, endurance and often despair about the future, we keep on going. Getting the kids to school can be a major achievement, but the day doesn’t stop there.

How do we do it? What keeps us going? How do we cope with our difficulties? We are all different so every story will resonate with someone else and help them to cope too.

Women are wonderful. We deserve recognition. If we can acknowledge and celebrate our own strengths, share stories and make difficult topics easier to discuss, it will help us to live longer in better health.

So let’s talk. Let’s share. Let’s do this.