See How YOU Made a Difference in Our Community! MHAM 2020 Community Insights

On behalf of CHAMP’s NMHAM committee, we would like to thank all of the participants and participating organizations in National Migraine and Headache Awareness Month 2020! As a community, we attended virtual races and education events, we read blog posts, we wrote about our personal migraine and headache stories, we rallied, wore purple and wore shades. Maybe most importantly, we shared about migraine, headache and cluster diseases on our social media pages and IRL(!) with friends and family. In doing all these things, we raised awareness, took steps to lessen stigma, and strengthened our community. All this could not have happened without you. A special thanks goes to those of you who volunteered to write blog posts – they were viewed over 20,000 times!

However, we must acknowledge that this has been a challenging time to share our message. With the world still in the midst of a global pandemic and the systemic racism and inequalities that unfortunately continue today, many members of our community are hurting. Our CHAMP partners are putting actions into place to do their part and continue to push for access to affordable treatment for those living with headache diseases.

We are so appreciative of the advocates who are moving our cause forward and reaching those who live with migraine, cluster and headache diseases. We are amazed by your efforts and know they will yield big dividends.

Here are some of the results of everyone’s great work:

• Shades for Migraine, an annual global awareness campaign that challenges people to “show they care and wear a pair” of sunglasses, had a reach in the millions with participants in at least 45 states and 38 countries. Thousands of photos were posted on social media including those of Cindy McCain, Chris Bowen (Australia’s Shadow Minister for Health), and 20+ news anchors. The top 3 photo contest winners were Mandy Rae Pierce, Mirabella Macias and Lindsay (last name unknown). The top ten were awarded prizes and their photos can be seen in order of how many votes they received at shadesformigraine.org/contest.
• Chronic Migraine Awareness, Inc. Thanks to our entire MHAM team, volunteers and community, the 2020 MHAM campaign reached 137,534 people, with 30,875 shares and comments and participation in 107 countries. The campaign included such initiatives as Rally Facts with 12,249 likes, shares and comments; CMA Day with 3,000 likes, shares and comments; 200 free Rally Kits sent, 150 Refer a Friend For MHAM Triage Kits sent, 50 Faces of Chronic Migraine participants and an increase of 408 followers.
• The National Headache Foundation’s overall social media impressions were 250K with 10K engagements on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
• Just under 2300 people participated in all of the Miles for Migraine virtual June events and more than 4400 miles were run and walked.
• With the help of the American Headache Society, the American Migraine Foundation (AMF) hosted an Ask Me Anything on Reddit that resulted in over 4500 comments. It also launched a set of 18 GIFs and stickers related to migraine to provide people with a tool to talk about and describe migraine online. They were viewed over 400K times.

Overall, the CHAMP community reached over one million people during MHAM, thanks to the efforts of our partners and you!

We would like to improve upon our efforts for MHAM. But, we want to do so in a way that resonates with our community. Please take a few minutes to complete our brief survey and provide feedback on how MHAM can be even better next year.

TAKE SURVEY

How do we continue to keep Migraine and Headache Awareness alive all year long?

• Check out the blog post from Lisa Smith on 6/20, Tips to Be a Migraine/Headache Advocate. In case you missed other blog posts, you can find them here: MHAM Blog Posts.
• Follow CHAMP and our partner organizations, for activities planned all year long.
• Take time to take care of yourself and don’t settle if you aren’t seeing any improvement in your health.
• Talk to your employer, your family, your friends, and someone in the check-out line about your disease.
• Know that you are NOT alone. View our ‘Join a Community’ page and get connected today.
• Reach out to a new friend in our community, and let them know you are thinking of them.

We’ll be back next year for NMHAM 2021! We are so thankful for this incredible migraine and headache community!

by Meghan Buzby, CHAMP, Advocacy Director
Wendy Bohmfalk, Migraine World Summit, World Health Education Foundation & MHAM Co-Chair
Catherine Charrett-Dykes, Chronic Migraine Awareness, Inc. & MHAM Co-Chair