Get Involved
Showing your support for National Migraine and Headache Awareness Month is easy! Please take a moment to review all the great activities planned for June. Whether you want to educate yourself through webinars and training sessions, participate in a race, share on social media, wear shades on June 21 or rally against Chronic Migraine on June 29, we have you covered. Check out the organizations and activities below to find a variety of ways to participate and spread awareness.
View the Calendar to see additional events planned for the month.
Flamingo Fundraiser
The National Headache Foundation (NHF) will be kicking off MHAM with 51 purple flamingos at the Brookfield Zoo (outside of Chicago, IL), on June 1st! Each purple flamingo symbolizes 800,000 people living with migraine disease and headache disorders, and each year the NHF has been serving the migraine and headache community.
We are asking people to donate $25 (or more) in honor of a loved one, caregiver, or healthcare professional to symbolically adopt a flamingo. The honoree’s flamingo will stay with the NHF, so we will send them a mini purple flamingo with a certificate explaining that someone has donated in their honor. The funds raised during the month of June will go to funding research. Go to headaches.org for more information and to participate.
Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF) and CHAMP are hosting a Facebook Live event on June 2 at 1 pm ET. We'll discuss Migraine & Headache Awareness Month, insurance access, appeals, resources and give our best pro tips.
Join a Miles for Migraine Walk, Run or Relax event in June to advocate for migraine and support migraine research. There will be three options to choose from and you can participate no matter where you live. As a virtual event, you would commit to completing a walk, a run, or any type of intentional movement (bike, swim, skate, hike, etc) or your own relaxation activity at a time and place that works for you.
The June 2-10 event supports the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy and their annual Headache on the Hill event. This year's event will have a special focus on our veteran community too. The June 16-24 event benefits the Loyola Fellowship in Headache Program supported by Diamond Headache Clinic. There will be a live portion to this event, in Chicago on Saturday June 19th. Finally, from June 23-July 1 we will be collaborating with the Danielle Byron Henry Foundation for an event to support the University of Utah's Headache Fellowship Program and local research in Utah. That event will also offer both virtual and in-person options.
Shine A Light in Remembrance
CMA and the Danielle Byron Henry Migraine Foundation are partnering to remember those we’ve lost due to the disabling impact of migraine and headache disease on June 7th. Please light a candle, put a purple light bulb on your porch, or line your house in purple lights in remembrance. Then take a picture and share on social media with #ShineALight.
Join us for a Facebook Live event, Managing the Emotional Toll of Migraine, with Dan Kaufmann, PhD, as we take a real look at the pain behind the smile and look at ways to help deal with the challenges caused by migraine disease as part of a new era of care. Live Q&A! Monday June 14, 6pm ET - REGISTER FOR FREE NOW! Dan Kaufmann, PhD, leads the Migraine Management Resources program offered by the Danielle Byron Henry Migraine Foundation, and is passionate about helping people discover different coping strategies and methods to help deal with migraine and the associated stress and anxiety which go along with this disease.
Share the Pain Behind the Smile is a one-day event on June 14 encouraging people who live with migraine or other headache disorders to share their stories by posting a photograph, original art or poem which helps raise awareness of the reality of life with these disorders.
On June 16th, please join the Headache Disease Policy Advocacy Network (HDPAN) for the first Annual Advocacy Day of Action. Representative Madeleine Dean (D-PA-4th) has agreed to reintroduce a House resolution to designate June as Migraine and Headache Awareness Month (#MHAM). It will help to increase awareness within Congress about the impact of migraine, headache, and cluster diseases. We need your help to ask your Representative to sign on to and support this resolution! Sign up to attend our virtual webinar on June 14th at 7 pm ET for all the information you need to take action on June 16th. If you have a blog, you can use this sample blog post to help us promote the day. And, click here for some fast facts about migraine, headache, and cluster.
HDPAN is a new cross-community stakeholder group working to identify and better support advocacy and policy initiatives that benefit the headache disease community.
Men and Headache Diseases Interview
Millions of men live with headache disease. The pain is real for men, too. If you are a man living with the symptoms of headache, migraine or cluster take the steps to get an accurate diagnosis. You deserve treatment and relief. Migraine World Summit will release an interview on this topic on Father's Day, June 20, 2021. Join Carl Cincinnato, a new father, as he talks to Dr. Paul Mathew and Dr. Larry Newman about men and headache diseases. Even if you are not a man or father, this engaging interview will have something for everyone.
Shades for Migraine is a successful social media blitz created in 2017 by the Association of Migraine Disorders (AMD) as a way to create a viral buzz around a disease that affects more than 1 billion people worldwide. Annually people living with migraine, their friends, families, and coworkers post pictures on social media wearing sunglasses on (and around) June 21. Participants use the hashtag #ShadesForMigraine and challenge others to take part to make the campaign go viral. This campaign is an opportunity for people to share their connection to migraine disease, in the hopes of spurring more conversation. Shades for Migraine quickly caught on and in 2020, 44 countries participated with over 20 million people reached. Since 2017, a coalition of more than 50 migraine-related organizations and bloggers have come together to promote Shades For Migraine to make the biggest impact. While they all focus on migraine, headache or pain, each organization offers something unique. Learn more at ShadesForMigraine.org.
Join this Miles for Migraine virtual Education Day session on June 21 with the following presentations: Dr. William Young, MD, FAHS - How To Stay Out of the ER with Migraine; Megan Conover - Alternative Nonmedical Migraine Treatments and Sarah Ogden - My Migraine Advocacy Journey.
Veterans and Headache: How to Find the Support You Need
The 5th Annual VIRTUAL #CureforCluster 5k by Clusterbusters is Saturday, June 26th, 2021. This event raises funds for cluster headache research! A virtual 5k allows clusterheads from around the globe to participate without the need for travel. We feel this is the best way to raise awareness worldwide. Whether it’s just you or a group of people, simply sign up on our website, and you’ll receive your t-shirt and race bag in the mail a few days before June 26th. Don't forget to post photos of your participation on social media with #CureforCluster!
Join us on June 29th for CMA Day and share how you #RallyAgainstChronicMigraine. Let’s show the world how we Rally against this disease every day. Take a picture with Rally, share on your social media platforms using #RallyAgainstChronicMigraine and don’t forget to invite others to participate! Visit our Rally page chronicmigraineawareness.org/rally to get Rally and participation information.
This year’s National MHAM theme is “New Era of Care” Let's put a real face to this disease! Register to participate at www.cmaware.org/mham. Share your picture (it can be a low symptom/attack day or high symptom day) and your quote answering the question, "How do you care for yourself as you manage to live with chronic migraine?" Your pictures will be shared via social media with #FacesofChronicMigraine.
Since 2013 CMA, Inc set up Fact A Day to push education and awareness through a social media fact sharing campaign. Since 2016 we have partnered with U.S. Pain Foundation on this initiative. In 2019, we began partnering with several organizations. We encourage our members to share these fact throughout the month. #FactADay
Get the Most out of Migraine Matters
Patient Advocate Foundation is excited to share its expertise surrounding the challenges patients with migraine disease experience when it comes to financial stability, medical debt crisis, and insurance products. Its tool Migraine Matters serves the needs of patients and the providers working on behalf of their care. Watch this quick tutorial to help you get the most from the Migraine Matters internet-based resource tool.
Patient Advocacy Training Series
Learn how to advocate for yourself and your cared ones by joining the National Patient Advocate Foundation's Patient Advocacy Training Series launching in June.
The Patient Advocate Foundation Migraine CareLine is designed to provide individualized case management assistance for those living with or needing screening for migraine disease, free of charge to the patient, their caregiver, or provider. Users of the Migraine CareLine get paired up with an expert case manager who can assist with navigating eligibility and enrollment in disability benefits and overcoming insurance coverage and financial burdens that impact access to care. 1-866-688-3625 or visit the website.
Chronic Migraine Proclamation Requests
Proclamations are a great way to help spread the word within a community about a cause. What is a Proclamation exactly? It is a legal-looking document that a Mayor issues that states this day is officially “Migraine and Headache Awareness Month” for the city or state in June. It is a small PR gesture many communities are already doing for Migraine and Headache Awareness Month. Your city could be next!
