30 people – most of them suffering from a rare and potentially fatal disease – will meet mid-May in northern Spain in order to walk part of the legendary Camino de Santiago together.
The patients all suffer from Hereditary Angioedema (HAE) and it is far from an everyday occurrence to walk the kind of mileage they enter into on the Camino. However, on 14 May 2017 they will join forces and take part in the “HAEi/AEDAF Camino Walk 2017” together with caregivers, and doctors from USA, Mexico, Argentina, Denmark, Spain, Malta, and South Africa.
The upcoming “HAEi/AEDAF Camino Walk 2017” is a follow-up to a similar event organized in May 2016.
“The Camino Walk takes place on and around 16 May, which is the global awareness day for HAE.
There is a dual purpose of the event. Firstly, for each and every patient to prove that the disease does not limit the ability to live life to the fullest. And secondly to raise the global awareness of the disease through every step they take on the Camino”, says Executive Director Henrik Balle Boysen of HAEi.
HAEi is an international non-profit umbrella organization presently organizing national HAE organizations in 55 countries on all continents.
“We know that many people would like to take part in this walk but are not able to do so. Therefore, from 1 April to 31 May 2017 we arrange the “HAE Global Walk”, allowing everyone to participate no matter where they are. All you need to do is to walk any distance you would like wherever you feel like it – on your own or together with others – and report the distance walked to our campaign website at www.haeday.org. Your steps will then be added to those taken by people walking the Camino as well as all other HAE steps taken around the globe”, says Mr. Balle Boysen.
The HAE Global Walk was first launched in 2016. From late April and all through May 2016 the organization registered more than 12,000,000 steps taken by individuals and groups wanting to be part of the global HAE awareness movement. The campaign seems to attract quite some interest this year as well: In just one month almost 4,500,000 steps have been walked by close to 1,000 people in 16 countries.
