History of MHAM

  • June 1, 2012

    How MHAM All Began

    The National Headache Foundation (NHF) started Migraine & Headache Awareness Week.

  • June 1, 2012

    Expanding

    The week-long awareness campaign transitioned to Migraine & Headache Awareness Month (MHAM) in June 2012.

    • Each year a theme is chosen by NHF. 
    • A 2004 awareness campaign used purple, which spurred patient educator, Teri Robert, to approach the following organizations in 2012 to make it the official color of MHAM:
      • American Headache Society
      • National Headache Foundation
      • Clusterbusters
      • OUCH-US
      • MAGNUM
      • PFO Research Foundation
      • Migraine Research Foundation
  • June 1, 2012

    Engaging the Community

    TMHAM Ribboneri Robert worked with the National Headache Foundation and began the #MHAM Blogging Challenge, which created daily prompts for bloggers to jumpstart an article related to the day's topic and theme.

    Tammy Rome joined Teri in these efforts, which eventually morphed into the MHAM Blogging & Social Media Challenge as a way for all of those living with headache diseases to participate. Visit MigraineDisease.org to see this year's activities. 

    Chronic Migraine Awareness, Inc created an annual Recognition Day during MHAM on June 29th to bring awareness to those whose lives are affected on a near daily basis with migraine and headache diseases. They created a purple and red awareness ribbon specifically for the estimated  four million Americans who are chronic. 

    In 2013, CMA, Inc began a Fact-A-Day campaign to raise awareness by sharing important information on social media. In 2016, they added a social media campaign to challenge participants to take advocacy and education actions. On both social media campaigns, CMA, Inc has partnered with multiple organizations to provide content. Visit their Facebook page to participate in this year's actvities. 

  • June 1, 2018

    National Recognition

    The U.S. Federal Government officially recognized National Migraine & Headache Awareness Month as a National Health Observance. in June 2018. This recognition effort was led by Patient Advocate, Jeannette Rotondi and Chronic Migraine Awareness, Inc.
  • June 1, 2019

    New Official Logo

    The MHAM committee of CHAMP collaborated together to create an updated logo that will be used for years to come. Each year it will be updated to include the theme chosen by the National Headache Foundation.