National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, September 8-14, has announced the 2008 theme: “Hope Can Grow From the Soil of Illness.”Lisa Copen, Founder of Rest Ministries, the sponsor of this annual event says, “Illness can signify the loss of one’s plans and even dreams, but most often people who live with invisible illness find a new purpose they would not have imagined under any other set of circumstances.”
The next month will feature bloggers on the topic of illness, all of who have found a renewed sense of direction, despite the life-altering changes illness has brought into their lives.
Copen, 39, who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia at the age of 24, remembers searching for what her purpose would be within her new limitations.
“I had always planned to work for a nonprofit doing something to help others, but I never felt I was efficient or empathetic enough because I had not walked in the shoes of those I served. Now, through my illness ministry and books on aspects of coping with illness, I have the chance to use what I experience each day to reach out to others. It’s my hope that they will also find hope despite their illness, as they discover that new sense of purpose in the pain.”
To find out more about the telephone seminars that will be held September 8-12, as well as the invisible illness week awareness outreach products, visit http://www.invisibleillness.com/ .
CONTACT:
LISA COPEN
858.486.4865
Key Words: multiple chemical sensitivity, chemical sensitivity, chemical sensitivities, multiple chemical sensitivities, MCS, EI, environmental illness, sick building syndrome, idiopathic environmental intolerance, fibromyalgia, chronic fatiuge, FM, CFS, mold illness, clinical ecology, alternative medicine, environmental medicine, neuropathy, encephalopathy, toxic, chemical
